Police in Switzerland have warned visitors and residents to watch out for sneaky QR code scams affecting parking spaces in Basel. The fraudsters scam drivers out of their financial information by sticking their own QR codes on top of those used to pay for parking.

Fraudsters paste over parking QR codes in Basel

In a statement, police in Canton Basel-Stadt confirmed that a new scam had been detected. Instead of centring on the internet, fraudsters have targeted various parking metres dotted around the streets of the city.

Since 2021, those looking to park in Basel can use the ParkSmart Basel app on their mobile phones and the QR code on the parking metre to pay for their space digitally. The police explained that in trying to steal users’ bank details and personal information, criminals had stuck their own QR code on top of the real one used for parking.

Dodgy QR codes lead to fake parking website

The fake QR codes themselves were placed very “carefully” to make sure users fell for the trick. Once scanned, victims are directed to a fake parking website called parksmartbasel.com where their personal and financial information is at the mercy of the scammers.

Officials explained that the website only contains fields for personal and banking information and no other functions. Once all the data is filled in an error message is displayed: "the perpetrators already have the personal credit card details by this point," the police statement explained.

How to spot the Basel parking QR code scam

What’s worse, victims of the scam will also be fined by the police, as technically they never paid for their parking. Though it is unclear how long the scam has been in operation, 20 Minuten noted that the fake website came online on September 16. Police expect the scam to mainly impact visitors to Basel, as locals would notice that the website was fake.

To spot the fake website, authorities noted that it contains many spelling mistakes, has a drop-down menu on the top right that does not function properly and the address of the parking metre is not capitalised. Finally, they noted that the real QR codes are only used to identify where the car is parked, and that upon scanning it should send users to the ParkSmart Basel mobile app, not a website.

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