A Rise In Qr Code Scams, Known As ‘quishing,’ Has Been Seen

Major banks are warning the public about the rise of QR code phishing scams which are leading to customers sharing their financial details and being scammed through sophisticated fraud campaigns. Known as ‘quishing,’ this new scam involves fraudsters sending QR codes in attached PDFs through emails. Another version is where a QR code sticker has been placed on top of legitimate QR codes used to pay for parking. When scanned by a mobile phone or device, the QR code link could take people to an incorrect website and ask them to enter financial details or lead them to download malware. With it being sent within a document, experts told the Financial Times that the messages are frequently able to get through corporate cyber security filters. “The appeal for criminals is that it’s bypassing all of the [cyber security] training and it’s also bypassing our products,” said Chester Wisniewski, a senior adviser at security software company Sophos, to FT. QR code scam could be just one part of much bigger attack The actual figures around how many people have been affected through this means aren’t yet known as it can be difficult for banks to estimate, with the email sometimes being just one part of a much broader cyber attack. Banks like Santander, HSBC, and TSB are reported as having joined the UK National Cyber Security Centre and US Federal Trade Commission to raise concerns about this rise. “These attacks take advantage of the fact that QR codes, by nature, are difficult to interpret visually, so victims often don’t know where they are being directed to until it’s too late,” said Amir Sadon, director of research at cyber security consultancy Sygnia, to the Financial Times. According to a survey by security software company McAfee, published in May, more than a fifth of all online scams in the UK probably originated from QR codes. Wisniewski told FT: “Today almost no [cyber security] products are looking through attachments. “If this continues to be a problem, I suppose the industry will have to move there — but it will slow down the delivery of emails, and it will also make things more expensive.” Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram The post A rise in QR code scams, known as ‘quishing,’ has been seen appeared first on ReadWrite.