Scammers often do their nefarious business from far-flung places, preferring to digitally pick your pocket rather than literally pick your pocket. But old-fashioned scamming with physical media placed in person is still a thing, and the latest ruse could be right under your windshield wiper. Across the USA, a new fake ticket scam is popping up, and it requires the person doing the dirty deed to come right up to your ride.
Known as the “parking ticket scam,” the con is proliferating across the nation and is very simple in concept: Scammers place fake parking tickets on cars and simply wait for law-abiding citizens to pay what they believe is a real ticket – and payment goes to the scammer, of course.
Let’s take a deeper look into how big the problem is, how the scam works, and what authorities suggest to anyone who notices a parking ticket on their car in the future. This fraudulent behavior dates back to at least 2022 when police in Santa Cruz, California arrested a 19-year-old who allegedly admitted to placing fake tickets on vehicles near the beach. They obtained “evidence relevant to the scam” at the time.
That same month, police in Scottsdale, Arizona alerted residents about the same type of scam. “The ‘tickets’ look very realistic but there are a few red flags to indicate they are fake,” the department said.
The Scottsdale PD listed the reddest of those flags as:
- A QR code that leads to a payment site
- No option other than online
- No offense is indicated on the ticket
The QR code is the essential component of the scam. In some cases, scammers are merely trying to get the funds you believe are going toward a real ticket. In other cases, police say the criminals might be trying to gain access to personal devices. The warnings from 2022 evidently haven’t done much to end the practice.
This year, police in Nashville, New York, Florida, and California reported similar instances. The effort scammers make to fool marks with realistic tickets varies. At times, the fake tickets look very authentic, like these examples:
In the photo above, the ticket on the left is fake despite appearing to be basically a modernized version of the real one on the right. Printing it on thermal paper is a nice touch (well, not nice but you get it). Notice too that it only has one of the red flags (in this case the QR code) that the Scottsdale Police mentioned in their post from 2022.
Just last month, the Alhambra Police Department in California posted about the scam as well. Notice again, that the QR code is the big distinguishing feature here. Observe too just how similar the fake ticket in Nashville is to the genuine one in the bottom right of the Alhambra post.
Of course, in other places, like Florida, some folks don’t go to the same lengths for this scam.
Yes, that’s an actual photograph of a real “fake parking ticket” placed on a car in Florida. Just to be totally sure that nobody in the area gets duped, the local authorities provided this excellent direction. “We do not issue parking citations in the form of a handwritten note (see attached).”
The issue is big enough at this point that even the Better Business Bureau issued a warning about it in 2023. “It is so easy to print these fake tickets, stick them on cars, especially if they slap a QR code on them,” BBB PR Director Melanie McGovern to Denver 7.
“Most people like the convenience of scanning and being able to pay right there. That is where this gets tricky. That is why consumers have to be alert on where they’re parking.” The BBB and most law enforcement offices suggest commonsense approaches to avoid getting scammed.
Be certain about where you park. If you know for a fact that there is no chance of getting a ticket, you’ll be more suspect should one land on your windshield. Carefully read any citation that shows up. Government websites end in .gov or .ca (in Canada).
Consider how the ticket allows you to pay for it. Clearly QR codes are a giant red flag at this point, but some of these fake tickets allegedly allow you to pay buy mail via check. Finally, contact the government through verified lines of communication to confirm the ticket before paying it.
If you decide to pay a ticket that you’re not 100 percent sure of, use a credit card for the transaction. It can be easier to contest a fraudulent charge that way.
Top image credit: H_Ko/stock.adobe.com
People pay parking tickets? LOL!