Fraudulent QR codes were discovered on 40 different parking meters in Monaco over the weekend. While the stickers have since been removed, officials are urging anyone who may have been affected by the scam to reach out to the police.

In the last few days, officials in Monaco have discovered that nearly half of the Principality’s street parking meters had been used in a new scam involving fraudulent QR codes being affixed to their surfaces.

Unsuspecting users were invited to scan the codes to pay their parking fees and were redirected to malicious websites. Called “quishing” or QR phishing, the QR codes led victims to fraudulent websites where they were asked to share payment details and other personal data with the scammers, thus opening them up to identity theft, financial fraud and even ransomware attacks.

Since detection, all of the offending stickers have been removed and the meters have been checked for further problems.

Parking meters in Monaco have several payment options, such as the MonaPass application, by coins and by card, but QR codes are not among them.

If anyone has fallen victim to the scam, they are being encouraged to contact the Monaco Police on +377 93 15 30 15.

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Photo credit: Mairie de Monaco