Chapter 6
QR code lures
What you'll get from this chapter: How a QR code can hide a fake website, where those codes show up, and how to check one before you trust it.
In this chapter
- Words in this chapter
- Your steps
A (short for quick-response code, the square barcode you scan with a phone camera) hides the real web address until you have already opened it.
is that uses a QR code. The code may arrive in an email about a document, on a parking meter sticker, on a restaurant menu, or in a letter that looks like a bill. You scan it and land on a sign-in page or a payment page that is not the company it imitates.
Do not scan a code that was pasted over another code. Type the company’s address yourself, or use the application you already installed. If you must scan a code from a business you are standing inside, check the address that opens before you enter a password or a card number.
Fake payment pages are one trap. Fake buyers and sellers are another. The next chapter covers marketplace, ticket, and rental scams.
Words in this chapter
- . that uses a . The square code hides the real web address until you have already opened it.
- QR code. Quick-response code. The square barcode you scan with a phone camera to open a web address or a payment page.