Beware of QR codes on parking meters
The city is warning that fraudulent QR codes have been affixed to some parking meters.
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Blork 12:36 on 2025-07-15 Permalink
QR codes are nasty. They’re the security equivalent of “hand your phone to a stranger and let them play with it.”
jeather 15:13 on 2025-07-15 Permalink
Restaurants that have a QR code that links to a pdf file formatted to print that you’re supposed to read on your phone. Cursed.
Blork 15:31 on 2025-07-15 Permalink
I know! So annoying. Typically you can work around it by simply going to the restaurant’s website and following the link to the menu. The QR code is typically just a shortcut to that same menu.
CE 15:43 on 2025-07-15 Permalink
Im glad the QR code menus are starting to go away, I truly hated them. A few times I’ve left a restaurant when they couldn’t give me a physical menu.
jeather 15:54 on 2025-07-15 Permalink
It is not more convenient for me to find the link to an unreadable pdf menu than to use a QR code, really.
Many restaurants have printouts now.
Blork 16:54 on 2025-07-15 Permalink
@jeather, I didn’t mean that going to the website is more convenient than clicking a QR code. I meant it is less risky.
QR codes are essentially blind links; you have no idea where they’re sending you or what amount of tracking and other crap is built into the link. At least with a link on a web page you can get a sense of what it is. It’s not bulletproof but at least it’s not a total shot in the dark like a QR code link.
jeather 16:56 on 2025-07-15 Permalink
When I scan a QR code, it shows me the url I am going to. I grant this can be abused, and I’m sure lots of people click without checking, but it doesn’t actually open the link unless I want it to.
I really find it objectionable to try to read a menu on my phone, though.
Mozai 00:35 on 2025-07-16 Permalink
“It shows me the url I am going to…” Just about every QR code I’ve seen on the street uses a URL shortener, to make the QR code as simple as possible, so you don’t know where it’s going until you click it. These URL shorteners inject ads on your way to the final destination. And some (most?) phones will pre-fetch the remote content so it feels to the user like it gives a snappy response when you do click on it.
You get an email from a stranger with a link you can’t read asking you to “CLICK HERE” and of course you would shun it. But people in shops and posters in public transit think it’s okay. It’s like the joke: “2013: dont get into a stranger’s car. 2023: Your Über is here.”
Mark Côté 08:59 on 2025-07-16 Permalink
Funny, a link shortener is pretty much redundant with a QR code, unless you are purposefully trying to obfuscate the destination URL…
jeather 09:51 on 2025-07-16 Permalink
I don’t often get QR codes, to be honest, but when I do I don’t see a shortener. But I’m sure it happens.
I tried to look up the pre-fetch and I couldn’t see that confirmed.
Orr 17:21 on 2025-07-17 Permalink
in regard to qr-codes, we went into a restaurant and the server pointed at the qr code on the table so we stood up and walked out the door.