{"id":361184,"date":"2026-09-30T21:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361184\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T21:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:48:07","slug":"nyc-parking-scam-mihai-theodor-enescu-indicted-in-alleged-qr-code-scheme-in-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361184\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC parking scam: Mihai Theodor Enescu indicted in alleged QR code scheme in Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) — A man has been indicted on charges that he ran an alleged scheme targeting drivers in New York City through fraudulent QR code stickers placed on parking kiosks, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Mihai Theodor Enescu was arraigned Wednesday on an indictment alleging he operated a scam that targeted drivers. Enescu denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m working for Amazon as a delivery driver,” Enescu said.<\/p>\n

According to the district attorney’s office, Enescu placed QR code stickers on 64 parking kiosks in Manhattan. Prosecutors said the stickers directed users to a fraudulent website not affiliated with ParkNYC, the city’s approved parking app and payment platform.<\/p>\n

Authorities allege the website prompted users to enter financial information, including credit card numbers, that Enescu hoped to access.<\/p>\n

Investigators said they were first alerted to the alleged scheme when a victim scanned one of the QR code stickers on a parking meter near 79 E. 10th St. in June 2025. The sticker read, “Web Pay. Scan to pay.”<\/p>\n

According to authorities, the QR code directed the victim to a website prominently displaying the official ParkNYC logo. The victim attempted to enter information several times but encountered continual buffering.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the victim later realized the QR code was a sticker that had been placed over the official ParkNYC sticker on the meter. The person then alerted their banks before suffering any financial loss.<\/p>\n

People interviewed by Eyewitness News said they plan to be more vigilant.<\/p>\n

Officials are warning the public about similar scams and advise drivers to use parking meters directly or the ParkNYC app rather than scanning QR codes.<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) — A man has been indicted on charges that he ran an alleged scheme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[134193,128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-361184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-134193","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}