Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council is alerting residents, businesses and visitors to scammers targeting car park payment machines with QR code stickers.
Counterfeit stickers, that direct users to fake payment websites, have been known to replicate websites of official parking providers, and have been appearing nationwide and in car parks of neighbouring authorities in recent months.
While the Council is taking precautions to limit car park user’s exposure to the scam, members of the public are encouraged to remain vigilant and notice the signs.
Council-operated car parks do not offer a payment option of scanning a QR code to pay for your parking. The only accepted methods of payment are through the Contactless feature built into the payment machine and through the Council’s mobile parking provider RingGo.
Another sign to watch out for are the fees on the car park’s tariff board not aligning with those on the unofficial website that the QR code directs you to.
To prevent car park users in Nuneaton and Bedworth from falling victim to the scam, the Council’s car parking enforcement officers are inspecting machines each time they enter a car park, and any items that are not supposed to be on the payment machine will be removed.
Cllr Nicky King, Portfolio Holder for Business and Regeneration, said:
“This is a serious and highly deceptive scam, and we urge everybody to double-check before making payments and never trust QR codes stuck on machines.
“The Council does not use QR codes for parking payments in any of its car parks.
“Residents and visitors should only use the Contactless feature on the payment machine or the official RingGo app.”
Any QR code stickers that appear on parking machines have not been placed there by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council.
RingGo also does not offer a QR code scanning feature to download its app. The app can be downloaded directly from the App Store and Google Play.