HOUSTON – Houston is warning the public about a scam they’ve learned about in Texas cities and may be affecting people using on-street parking stations in Houston.
Officials said Wednesday that fraudulent QR codes are being affixed to on-street parking pay stations. These fraudulent QR codes link to a non-city-affiliated website or a fake vendor. In the past three weeks, Houston officials say parking enforcement officers in both San Antonio and Austin discovered fraudulent QR codes affixed to on-street parking pay stations.
And now, ParkHouston told KPRC 2 they’re seeing it in our own back yard. There were five locations where workers found codes Wednesday morning. Most are east of downtown and one in downtown.
The locations are here:
900 McKinney, north side of the block
1000 McKinney, north side of the block
1300 Polk, south side of the block
600 Polk, north side of the street
Here is what the fake code on the parking pay meter looks like:
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Here’s a screenshot of what the fake website looks like once you click on the code:
A QR code (quick response code) is a two-dimensional barcode that when scanned by a mobile device can almost instantly link the user to…
