A viral Facebook reel shows the moment that a vigilant motorist realised he was about to be a victim of a parking scam – and has shared the signs to spot so you don’t get fooled.
The parking con, known as “quishing”, was discovered by a man named Jay Jordan, who uploaded the video to Facebook on Monday (September 30) and it’s since had over two million views on the platform. In it, he also took steps to make sure that no one else would be affected.
The clip was filmed in Ironbridge, a riverside village in Shropshire, England, and shows Mr Jordan peeling a fake QR code sticker from a local council operated parking sign in a car park called Dale End. The sign says: “Pay for your parking using your mobile” and offers up two options – either download an app, or scan the QR code to pay.
Similarly designed parking signs can be found across the UK. However, the real QR code has been covered up with a sticker that actually takes visitors to a scam website: a practice known as “quishing.”
One of the top commenters on the viral reel said: “I was caught out by one of these in Ironbridge. After paying the parking charge, the fraudsters took regular payments from my account using my card details. Several small amounts that went unnoticed. Thankfully I was fully refunded by the bank.”
Another person added: “I was conned the same way at Markeaton Park, Derby. £75 a month for an alleged high end gym many miles from where I live. When I tracked them down they immediately refunded the money like they knew what they’d done and didn’t want any further come back.”
Other comments confirm that this type of scam is common across the UK. One victim writes: “I was scammed by this exact cheat in Birmingham. Parked for the Christmas Market.
“Went through the app it directed me to download. Added card details and over the next 24 hours was charged six times to over 100 pounds. But fortunately the bank refunded my money.”
How does quishing work?
“Quishing” is a new twist on cybercrime, where tech-savvy crooks use QR codes to lure unsuspecting victims into giving away their personal information. These codes, often tucked into phishing emails, social media posts, printed flyers, or even on everyday objects – like the parking sign above – are cleverly designed to trick you into clicking.
Once you scan the seemingly innocent QR code, you’ll be whisked away to a malicious website that demands your private information – your name, email, home address, date of birth, or even your banking details, all under the guise of “verifying your account”.
The best way to avoid it, unfortunately (given how quick and handy QR codes are), is to avoid submitting any personal information, making payments, or downloading anything from a site assessed through a QR code.
Other steps you can take include checking for tampering, or to see if a sticker has been pasted over the real QR code, as above. Also check that the URL the code takes you to is legitimate and official, and doesn’t have any spelling errors or other suspicious elements to it.
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