THE SCAM Scammers are sticking their own QR codes right over the real ones on parking meters. You park, you scan, you think you're paying the city — but you're on a fake payment page built to steal your card details, your login, or both. The code looks completely ordinary. There's no way to tell a fake sticker from the real one just by looking at it.

THE RED FLAG The only thing you can check is where the code takes you. Before you tap through, look at the preview of the web address your phone shows you. If there's a misspelled word or a letter that seems off — that's the tell. A real parking page won't have a scrambled URL.

THE RULE Never trust a QR code just because it's sitting on a meter. Scan it, stop at the preview, and read the address first. If anything looks wrong, open the parking app yourself instead. And if you already scanned one and typed in a password, change that password everywhere you used it, then check your card statements for charges you didn't make.

(Source: FTC consumer alert, September 3, 2026)

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