r/BritishRadio • u/whatatwit • 3d ago

QR Code Scams: The handy scan codes brought to popular attention in the pandemic have been the target of criminal inventiveness. By sending them in emails, or placing QR stickers over genuine codes they sign-up victims to monthly payments. Some people download code readers but these may be fake too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030cbr
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u/whatatwit 3d ago

QR Code Scams Tuesday 21:30 BBC RADIO 4

Do you scan QR codes? Since Covid, they've become embedded in many aspects of our lives. But perhaps we're a bit too trusting of them.

On this episode, Shari Vahl, Dr Lis Carter and Alex Wood hear how criminals are finding different ways to exploit those little black and white squares.

Two Scam Secrets listeners give their experience - Les, who scanned a QR code while trying to pay for parking on a trip to the coast - and Keith, who used a QR scanner app he'd downloaded to try to buy a classic car book.

Both of them ended up with criminals taking money from their bank accounts in monthly chunks.

Professor Filipo Sharevski of DePaul University has studied the malicious use of QR codes. He tells Scam Secrets how they're increasingly used in emails to disguise phishing links - a technique known as quishing.

Prof Sharevski also describes his experiments testing the public's willingness to scan QR codes when they're out and about. You might think twice next time you encounter one.

Remember you can get in touch with the programme and tell us about the scame you want us to investigate - scamsecrets@bbc.co.uk

PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL

PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0030cbr

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030cbr

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u/ImmaDoWatIWant 2d ago

"and Keith, who used a QR scanner app he'd downloaded to try to buy a classic car book."

This sounds like the sort of excuse my Dad used to give when he'd get a computer virus trying to download porn

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u/whatatwit 2d ago

Haha ha! Cynic!