Conmen are ripping people off across the United Kingdom by putting fake stickers on car parking payment machines to trick motorists into sending money.
The stickers and posters pose as genuine parking apps but if anyone scans the bar code on their mobile phone or visits the website, they’re directed to an app run by fraudsters.
People, thinking they’re making a genuine payment, will send the cash instead to the conmen who will then withdraw small sums of money below £50 so the victim is less likely to notice.
Parish councillor Maria Grasso, 67, told The Times that she fell for a scam at Upper Warlingham railway station car park in Surrey.
After catching the train, she received a text from a company called Mediacraze.com to say she’d signed up for a media streaming service.
When she dialled the phone number that was listed on the website to cancel, it was dead and it was then that she discovered she’d been scammed.
She said that criminals are very clever. They only take a small amount of money each month, and if you’re not the sort of person who religiously checks their account, this can go unnoticed for a very long time.
QR, or Quick Response codes are small, jumbled boxes of black and white squares, which work much like a barcode. When used legitimately, they can be extremely helpful.
You simply point the camera on your smartphone at the QR code and it directs you to a website automatically without you having to tap the details into your browser.
This is when fraudsters attach a phoney QR code over a real one to snare unsuspecting victims.
Some motorists on the Isle of Wight fell prey to this crime last year when a phoney QR code was stuck on parking meters in a council car park.
It’s difficult to determine a bogus QR code from a real one, which is a key reason why people are particularly vulnerable.
Stephen Burke, product director at the cyber security company Titan HQ, believes a detailed look at the placing of the code offers clues as to whether it might be a scam.
He said that you should always take a close look at any QR code to see if there are indications it has been plastered over a real one, perhaps on different paper or is peeling off.
However, if you are unfortunate enough to get scammed by these criminals, it should be the councils who run it that should be held accountable for any loss that you incur. It’s their machine and they have a duty to either make sure we can pay with cash or some online app, and even that’s not foolproof because if people want to scam you, they will find a way around it.
This is why cash is best and we need to stop this digital erosion of our lives and stick to what works and what has worked for decades. If it’s not broken, why try to fix it?
However, the simple solution to stop this problem would be to make car parks and places to park free, but of course, it’s another way for the government to make money. But of course, money isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. It’s just something we’ve been conditioned to believe for an extremely long time.
It just starts off as a bit of plain paper that the Bank of England just prints on, puts a few famous people on and then puts that you have to pay the bearer. Oh, and of course, some serial numbers.
Paper money actually has no intrinsic value, its worth is determined exclusively through supply and demand, and then it’s declared legal tender by government decree.
Basically, you’re being conned!
However, when it boils down to it our whole lives are a con, and we are being taxed, taxed, taxed through the nose while the Bank of England pumps out worthless paper money that’s worth nothing, we may as well be using Monopoly money, and then saying it’s worth something.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 