{"id":361210,"date":"2026-09-30T22:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T22:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361210\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T22:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T22:14:08","slug":"fake-qr-codes-on-manhattan-parking-meters-lead-to-identity-theft-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361210\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake QR codes on Manhattan parking meters lead to identity theft charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"ow0pq\">A 39-year-old man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to using QR code stickers to get credit card information from people trying to park in Manhattan, according to prosecutors and court records.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"5936u\">Mihai Theodor Enescu was arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on five counts of second-degree identity theft and six counts of second-degree criminal impersonation, court records show. Prosecutors allege he was behind the phony city payment website linked from the QR code stickers, which asked users for credit card information.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"ci273\">Enescu&#8217;s lawyer did not comment.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"ceunq\">Investigators found 64 of the stickers on meters across Manhattan, officials said.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2n8rl\">\u201cI want to remind everyone that the city does not ask you to scan a QR code when parking,\u201d Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"pi1u\">The scheme came to light in June 2025, when a driver scanned a sticker reading \u201cWeb Pay. Scan to Pay\u201d on a meter on East 10th Street, according to prosecutors. The code led to a website showing the official ParkNYC logo. It asked for a credit card number, expiration date, phone number, billing address and license plate number.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"ff0o9\">The driver tried several times to enter the information, but the page kept buffering, prosecutors said. He then noticed the QR code was a sticker placed over the meter\u2019s official ParkNYC sticker. He alerted his banks before he lost any money.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"bura2\">The city Department of Transportation then inspected parking meters throughout Manhattan and removed the 64 fake codes, city Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia Shihata said.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"cl88r\">\u201cThis defendant allegedly used the City\u2019s Manhattan parking meters to scam unsuspecting motorists out of their financial information,\u201d Shihata said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3r3ja\">Shihata said her investigators used cyber investigative and digital forensic techniques to uncover the scheme. They eventually linked Enescu to the website\u2019s account, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors also said he bought two packs of 4-by-6-inch shipping labels that could be used to make the stickers.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"drrn0\">That June, DOT warned drivers about the scam after a Reddit user visiting New York said he had entered his credit card information on a fake site, <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/parking-in-nyc-is-hard-enough-dont-get-suckered-by-the-meter\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Gothamist reported at the time<\/a>. Prosecutors did not say how many people entered their information or whether any money was stolen.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"8pjcm\">The investigation is ongoing, officials said. Drivers can pay at the meter or through ParkNYC\u2019s official app, website or phone system, according to the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 39-year-old man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to using QR code stickers to get credit card information from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-361210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361210","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=361210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}