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US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

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Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#11

Post by Robotbeat »

mysterydip wrote: post #3
kolp wrote: post #2

Scammers are sticking QR Codes on parking meters in Austin, Texas. The victim scans the QR code using a smartphone and is taken to a fake parking payment site. Personally, I think a better scam would be to follow clampers (parking boot in US), find cars that have been clamped and replace the release notice instructions with your own version and payment QR code.

What's the defense against this for the average person? Every city has a different parking app or site, there's no way for someone to know like with their bank.

dotgov website would work, if the feds wanted to help.

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#12

Post by kolp »

vmception wrote: post #10
mysterydip wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the defense against this for the average person? Every city has a different parking app or site, there's no way for someone to know like with their bank.

chargebacks are the defense. many scams look just like legitimate incompetent services, or legitimate well crafted services. there is a meme going around about how scammers target gullible people to filter out more skeptical people, but really thats just one segment of the population.

Would the average user raise a chargeback for €/$ 5 of parking fees? Even if the scam results in them getting a parking ticket, the cost of the parking ticket isn't subject to a chargeback, only the scammed parking fee itself.

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#13

Post by vmception »

kolp wrote: post #12
vmception wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

chargebacks are the defense. many scams look just like legitimate incompetent services, or legitimate well crafted services. there is a meme going around about how scammers target gullible people to filter out more skeptical people, but really thats just one segment of the population.

Would the average user raise a chargeback for €/$ 5 of parking fees? Even if the scam results in them getting a parking ticket, the cost of the parking ticket isn't subject to a chargeback, only the scammed parking fee itself.

I don't know and who cares what the average user would do. Thats the defense. It depends on the user experience, chargebacks aren't hard and can be done attempted with just the click of a button for some user's banks.

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#14

Post by throwaway0a5e »

kolp wrote: post #2

Scammers are sticking QR Codes on parking meters in Austin, Texas. The victim scans the QR code using a smartphone and is taken to a fake parking payment site. Personally, I think a better scam would be to follow clampers (parking boot in US), find cars that have been clamped and replace the release notice instructions with your own version and payment QR code.

>Personally, I think a better scam would be to follow clampers (parking boot in US), find cars that have been clamped and replace the release notice instructions with your own version and payment QR code.

Sell a service that cuts the boot off for half the price.

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#16

Post by lp0_on_fire »

The last time I traveled on the east coast I'd amassed _at least_ four separate "apps" on my phone from four different municipalities.

Each one wants my address and license plate number. Most want my credit card, too.

Each app looks and behaves like it was designed by an intern.

Each app wants to send me notifications on my phone (Ok, I guess if you're concerned about the meter running out).

Some of the apps accept payment, others don't (you have to go to the kiosk in the garage to pay). None of the municipalities I visited allowed cash payment.

Now apparently we need to worry about Phishing QR codes as well.

Is all of this worth not having to run out to the meter and feed it once in a while?

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#17

Post by lp0_on_fire »

keenmaster wrote: post #7
mysterydip wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the defense against this for the average person? Every city has a different parking app or site, there's no way for someone to know like with their bank.

The solution is to have a unique ID for the parking area instead of a QR code, and you enter the ID into the official parking app for the city. There is no way to direct money to anything but city coffers with this approach. This is already what many municipalities do. I don’t know why people are throwing their hands up at technology and using quarters when the apps are much more convenient (especially since you can…

> I don’t know why people are throwing their hands up at technology and using quarters when the apps are much more convenient (especially since you can remotely extend your parking time).

Because popping a quarter into the machine is much more convenient for most people than downloading a questionable app, typing in your license plate, address, and credit credit card.

I'd be willing to bet the number of people who need to remotely extend their parking time by app instead of feeding the meter are vastly outnumbered by the people who just want to park downtown for 30 minutes to grab a sandwich and move on with their day.

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#18

Post by [deleted] »

keenmaster wrote: post #7
mysterydip wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the defense against this for the average person? Every city has a different parking app or site, there's no way for someone to know like with their bank.

The solution is to have a unique ID for the parking area instead of a QR code, and you enter the ID into the official parking app for the city. There is no way to direct money to anything but city coffers with this approach. This is already what many municipalities do. I don’t know why people are throwing their hands up at technology and using quarters when the apps are much more convenient (especially since you can…

[deleted]

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#19

Post by CobaltFire »

ballenf wrote: post #6

The irony of this is that the last legit parking meter service I registered for was hacked and all my personal info and license plate are now in a public database. (Can't remember the name right now, but it's in the haveibeenpwned list).

Parkmobile; I was hit too.

Re: US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

#20

Post by selfhoster11 »

keenmaster wrote: post #7
mysterydip wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the defense against this for the average person? Every city has a different parking app or site, there's no way for someone to know like with their bank.

The solution is to have a unique ID for the parking area instead of a QR code, and you enter the ID into the official parking app for the city. There is no way to direct money to anything but city coffers with this approach. This is already what many municipalities do. I don’t know why people are throwing their hands up at technology and using quarters when the apps are much more convenient (especially since you can…

I don't want to have an app installed just for that. I'd prefer to do it over the web or contactless/dedicated smartcard system, by far.

Not to mention it locks out anything that isn't Android or iOS compatible. It's a niche market, but even Android was basically devoid of apps at one point because everyone was targeting the iPhone.

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