Scam alert: QR codes

 

I note a warning from the FTC that scammers are increasingly using QR codes to mislead and defraud people.

QR codes have become increasingly popular since the COVID-19 pandemic, which proliferated their usage in the form of paperless menus or bills.

But with the convenience and efficiency of the scannable codes comes a threat: they also make patrons easily scammable.

As Check Point cybersecurity experts report a 587% increase in QR phishing, or “quishing,” the Federal Trade Commission also has issued a warning to consumers who may be putting their personal information at risk.

Cybercriminals may cover up legitimate QR codes — also known as “quick response” codes that are traditionally found as a jumble of white and black pixels that direct scanners to a website — with their own that send scanners to phony sites that then steal personal information or install malware.

The bogus codes can be found in public places, like parking meters, or can be sent via texts or emails claiming there was suspicious activity on an account or an issue delivering a package.

“They want you to scan the QR code and open the URL without thinking about it,” the FTC warned in a blog post on Wednesday.

There's more at the link.

It baffles me how many people simply assume that a link to a Web site, or a QR code, or other seemingly innocuous method of contacting someone, is automatically safe and non-threatening.  Any technology, new or old, is subject to abuse.  Criminals are ingenious, and never stop thinking of new ways to steal from us.  (After many years of working with them in prison, I can say with certainty that if most criminals put half the effort into honest work that they do into crime and illegal scheming, they'd be much better off . . . but they'd rather be dishonest.  It's weird.)

Remember the old area code phone scam?  You'd get a message from an unknown number, with an area code you didn't recognize.  You'd return the call, and have to wait a while to be connected to "the person who called you", only to be told that it was a "wrong number" or something like that.  Meanwhile, you'd find out later that the area code was for a foreign country, and you'd been charged an exorbitant rate per minute while you were on hold.  You had to pay the phone bill (after all, you had made the call), and the scammer got a kickback from the phone company.  There's also the "Can you hear me?" scam, where you'd be recorded responding "Yes" to that question, and then the recording would be used to have you seemingly give consent to financial charges at other companies, or releasing confidential information.

QR and bar code scams are merely the latest variants on that sort of technological crime.  Basically, if anything can be misused to scam you, someone's going to try it.  Be on the alert for it.

Peter