{"id":530446,"date":"2026-07-17T09:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/530446\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T09:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:38:08","slug":"parkmate-issues-alert-after-fake-qr-codes-found-on-parking-meters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/530446\/","title":{"rendered":"ParkMate issues alert after fake QR codes found on parking meters"},"content":{"rendered":"
Customers are being advised not to scan the stickers and to check that payment websites are ParkMate-branded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile these incidents are not unique to ParkMate, we wanted to make sure you are aware and know how to stay safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you notice anything unusual, we\u2019d appreciate you letting us know so we can investigate promptly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The warning follows reports of fake QR codes cropping up on public and private parking meters around Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Scammers had vandalised the machines with permanent marker in a bid to force unwitting customers to scan stickers to pay for their parking.<\/p>\n
The scammers have obscured the screens of the parking meters in a scheme to trick residents into paying through the fake websites. Photo \/ Christchurch City Council<\/p>\n
The suspicious QR codes led to a fraudulent website that steals motorists\u2019 payment information.<\/p>\n
Last week, Christchurch City Council put out a notice about the suspicious stickers after parking wardens noticed them on meters.<\/p>\n
Head of transport Stephen Wright said the city\u2019s parking machines were being checked daily to combat the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stickers at these sites were immediately removed, and monitoring and surveillance from the parking compliance team has been increased.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, residents should be mindful that any stickers like this are not legitimate. The council would never prompt payment through QR codes, and the correct payment method for council-owned parking sites is always provided on the parking meters themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police have been informed about the activity and are working with the council to identify and remove the stickers.<\/p>\n
Anyone who has used the fraudulent website is urged to contact their bank, the police, and phone the council\u2019s contact centre on 03 941 8999 to report the location of the meter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Customers are being advised not to scan the stickers and to check that payment websites are ParkMate-branded. \u201cWhile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,41242,13853,19668,4381,37483,1874,1452,7055,261829,111,43,139,69,90,30205,261828,4409,217150,1461,86499,8222,1363,3608],"class_list":["post-530446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-alert","tag-code","tag-codes","tag-customers","tag-fake","tag-found","tag-issues","tag-linked","tag-meters","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-parking","tag-parkmate","tag-payment","tag-qr","tag-scam","tag-stickers","tag-warned","tag-wary","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}