AwarenessScams & deception
QR-code scams (quishing)
A tampered QR code that sends you to a fake site.
Understand it
Attackers place their own QR codes over genuine ones - on parking meters, menus, posters - or send them by email. Scanning opens a lookalike page that harvests card details or logins.
How to spot it
A sticker sitting over another code, a code arriving by email, or a page asking for payment where none is due.
Close the gap
- Check a physical code has not been stuck over the real one.
- Read the web address the code opens before you act on it.
- Pay for parking and the like through the official app, not a scanned link.
- Treat a QR code in an email as you would any other link.
What to do about it
You don't fix a scam, you spot one. Run anything suspicious through our phishing checker, and let your plan harden the accounts and money they're really after. When money's involved, the fix is a habit, not a setting: confirm every payment or change of bank details by phone, on a number you already have.