Some fairly sophisticated scam artists have been slapping QR-code "Pay by Phone" stickers on SF parking meters, and the SFMTA just caught on last week.
The SFMTA put out an alert on Friday that it had found five parking meters near Fisherman's Wharf that had phony QR-code stickers on them, leading users to a fraudulent website purporting to collect parking fees.
On Thursday, the SFMTA was notified of QR code stickers on a machine in Fisherman’s Wharf. We then found 5 machines with the fraudulent QR sticker. The URL has been disabled. We the public to be aware of this scam. Find info on how to pay correctly here: https://t.co/CH8wDk4Cup pic.twitter.com/bIa8sx3jKx
— SFMTA (@SFMTA_Muni) October 4, 2024
That site has now gone offline, but, the agency says, "We the public to be aware of this scam."
SFMTA spokesperson Michael Roccaforte tells SFGate that this was not just isolated to Fisherman's Wharf. A similar scam had been found with stickers appearing around Beale Street and Embarcadero over the summer. It's not clear how many people fell for the scam.
The QR-code stickers appeared on curbside "Pay by License Plate" meters. You can tap your phone to pay at those meters, but they do not use QR codes or external websites. The video below explains how these meters work.
The SFMTA does not use QR codes, but it does use the PayByPhone Parking app. Typically along curbs where these fancier meter machines don't exist, drivers are instructed to download the app and type in a pay station number as indicated on a curbside parking sign.
In many cases, including the license-plate meter machines, the SFMTA still accepts coins and cash.
This sophisticated, technology-based scam is similar to one that we heard about this past spring, in which area residents were getting scam texts claiming to be from FasTrak, demanding payment for express lane usage and sending unsuspecting victims to a scam payment site.
