Scammers are getting more creative and using fraudulent QR codes to access victims’ bank accounts. A woman in Singapore reportedly lost $20,000 from her bank account after scanning a fraudulent QR code to do a survey outside of a bubble tea shop. The QR code was a sticker on the glass door to the bubble tea’s shop and offered a free cup of milk tea for completing the survey. Scanning the QR code lead to downloading a malicious third-party app onto her Android phone. The malware app asks for the access to the phone’s microphone, camera and Android accessibility service, which allows control of the phone screen. The scammer than passively monitors the victim’s mobile banking usage before stealing money from her bank account at night. There have also been other cases of fraudulent QR codes observed, such as fake parking tickets on driver’s windshields across the US and UK.
This segment was created for the It’s 5:05 podcast