Fingal County council in north Dublin is warning of a scam involving parking meters.
In an annoyingly clever piece of scamming, ne’er-do-well’s are replacing the QR code on Payzone parking machines with their own to direct people onto a replica of Payzone.ie.
Online videos appear to show a fake QR code sticker on machines to dupe unsuspecting drivers into paying for parking via their phone.
The code brings the users to a fraudulent website and requests credit card details. Fingal County Council says it has reported the issue to the Gardaí.
Motorists, who need to quickly pay for parking, scan the code and pay online, but are in actuality, providing their details a scammer needs to rob them blind.
To add insult to injury, the driver will also get a parking fine having not paid for parking, despite what they assume to be the case.
The QR codes have been reported in many areas across Dublin and Wicklow with drivers being reminded to remain vigilant when paying for their parking.
It’s understood one woman was scammed out of one thousand euro because she mistakenly scanned one of these QR codes.
The advice is to download the app from your phone’s app store manually instead of scanning a code.
Warning: QR code scam on Pay & Display Machines
Fingal County Council is warning motorists to be vigilant of a QR scam that has taken place on Pay and Display machines. The Council is aware that a bogus QR sticker is being placed on some machines, bringing the user to a… pic.twitter.com/xvmZSwY9yF— Fingal County Council (@Fingalcoco) October 14, 2024
