Overview

• City of York Council found counterfeit QR stickers on signs and ticket machines across eight sites including Castle, Marygate and Nunnery Lane.
• Scans redirected motorists to cloned payment pages that harvested card details, with individual losses reported up to £400.
• Many stickers used the PayByPhone logo to appear legitimate, yet the service does not use QR codes for car park payments.
• The council said Penalty Charge Notices are never issued by text and asked residents to report incidents to the Veritau anti-fraud team.
• Authorities advise using official parking apps or pay machines and note nearly 20,000 driving-related scam reports to the DVLA in the last year.