Perhaps you consider yourself diligent about hackers, on guard against phishing emails and the like. However, scammers could be coming directly to you now in the form of a fake parking ticket on your windshield.
That’s the message from a United States Postal Service worker who took to TikTok warning of parking ticket scams throughout the nation. Creator Johnny America (@_johnnyamerica) put up a video on Sept. 5, which has generated more than 267,000 views so far. In it, he discusses what he’s been seeing.
What’s the scam?
“There’s this crazy parking ticket scam that I’ve been seeing all over the city,” he said, not specifying which city. “It’s crazy. It’s probably happening in your city, too.”
He explains that it starts with a fake parking ticket you find on your windshield that has a QR code on it. While that seems like a convenient gateway to making a payment and putting the ticket behind you, Johnny said it’s actually a gateway to losing money or being hacked.
“Once you get that parking ticket, you’re like, ‘Oh, snap, I got a parking ticket.’ It has a QR code on it. You scan it, and you’re either going to do one thing—you’re going to pay some idiot that’s setting you up with your own money, or you’re allowing them access into your phone, and they’re going to have access to your credit cards [and] all your banking information, stuff like that, you have stored on your device.”
He concludes, “So watch out for that scam because it’s crazy.”
@_johnnyamerica Parking ticket scammers #tiktok ♬ original sound – _johnnyamerica
More about this scam (and other parking-related scams)
There are indeed a few recent news accounts about parking ticket scams such as the one the creator is describing.
KABC-TV reported on July 31 about a scam in the Southern California city of Alhambra that is the same as the postal worker described. That story noted, “Scammers are printing up fake parking tickets and leaving them on windshields, with a QR code to a malicious website.” The story added that the fake tickets made people believe the code would take them to a city website.
Bitdefender listed this type of parking ticket scam among six different parking-related scams. Those include QR code stickers on parking meters working the same way as the ones on the tickets, text messages leading people to believe they’ve missed paying parking tickets, and people pretending to be parking attendants.
The scenario they concoct for the last one is especially dire. “In this scam, an attendant directs you to a nearby lot upon your arrival at an event. You pay for your parking spot and receive a payment stub as proof of purchase. However, when the event ends, you discover that the person who directed you to park was a scammer in a fake uniform. They took your money and vanished, leaving your car parked illegally. The real owner of the lot had your car towed.”
People share scam stories
The video motivated people to relay their own experiences.
“This happened to me on Maui,” one said. “When I called the county to pay, they said they never gave me a parking ticket. So glad I didn’t scan the QR.”
Another noted, “My friend said she got a random, weird parking ticket earlier today that’s just like this.. yikes!”
One noted, “I wait for them to send me a bill to my home,” echoing others who recommended that move to ensure the ticket is real.
The video led another commenter to joke, “Finally my bad behavior about not paying my parking ticket pays off!”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via Instagram and TikTok direct message.
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