Taking your car to go to town, look for a place and park … This habit has become trivial can hide a well -established trap.
A discreet scam, thought to go unnoticed, aims at motorists precisely when they are the least on their guard. She does not take the form of a false SMS or a suspect email, but settles directly in the street, on payment devices. This type of scam has already made many victims abroad, especially in Great Britain.
And it is not unknown in France. In some municipalities, motorists have discovered at their expense that a simple QR code stuck on a parking meter could be enough to divert their banking data. Last year, in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, in the Alpes-Maritimes, fraudulent stickers imitating official visuals had been placed on the parking terminals. Result: convinced users to pay their place in reality have been connected to a false site, and without knowing their bank details to crooks without knowing it.
The functioning of this scam is based on a simple, but effective method. Printed QR codes are stuck in a hurry on parking meters, sometimes accompanied by a message of the type “ Scan here to pay “. The link refers to a web page which perfectly imitates those of well -known parking payment applications in France, such as PaybyPhone, Flowbird or Easypark. Once on this trapped page, the victim between his data as she would usually do: name, bank card, sometimes telephone number. The crook has only to recover them.
To avoid being trapped, it is better to avoid scanning any QR code found on a parking meter. Cities generally do not use this system to charge parking. Use your usual application directly, which you will have installed via official platforms such as the App Store or Google Play. If you do not have the application, type its name yourself in your search engine rather than following an unknown link. And in case of doubt, favor payment directly on the terminal, or by SMS if your city offers this option. This kind of scam often rests on precipitation: taking a few seconds to check may be enough to avoid it.
