The QR sticker on the parking meter

A scammer sticks their own QR code over the real one on a parking meter, pay-and-display kiosk or EV charging station, or leaves a fake parking ticket with a "pay here" QR under a windscreen wiper. You scan it to pay and land on a convincing page that captures your bank or card details — and sometimes you *also* get a real fine, because you never actually paid.

This is called "Quishing" — phishing through a QR code. The code hides where it really sends you, so you can't tell a fake from the real one by looking.

What to do: treat any QR code glued in a public place as unverified — like a phone number scribbled on a wall. Pay at the machine with a card, or use the operator's official app that you installed yourself from the app store. Take a suspect ticket to the police to verify.