A police officer has issued a warning about a scam that allows scammers to access all the information on your phone with a single step.
Even if you consider yourself savvy enough to spot scams, it’s essential to stay informed about new tactics that scammers use. This particular scam is one that might easily deceive you.
Police officer Bo Braxton Da Savage, known on Instagram as @fitbocop1914, has highlighted this latest scam.
On August 28, he shared on his social media that he recently learned about a “pretty smart scam” circulating, which he admits could have fooled him had he not been aware of it.
This scam involves receiving free gifts in the mail. It may seem puzzling—why would a scammer send you a free gift? But this is part of their strategy.
Bo explains that the package may appear to be from a known company and will include your full name and address to make it seem legitimate.
However, he notes it “won’t have a return sender on it.”
He continues: “So what’s going to happen is, you get the package, you’re going to look at it and think, ‘Aw okay someone sent you a gift’. There’s going to be a QR code on the package or in the package.”
“[…] And you’re going to scan the QR code and once you scan the QR code every bit of information in your phone is going to get sent to the scammer – it’s going to send your credit card information, your bank information, your pictures, your phone numbers, your contacts. Everything that’s in your phone, after you scan that QR code, is going to get sent to the scammer.”
Indeed, a cybersecurity expert has previously highlighted the dangers of scanning QR codes without caution.
Adrianus Warmenhoven from NordVPN explained that if you scan a malicious QR code and have an ‘unpatched browser’ or one with a vulnerability, the attacker can “take over and infect the system” on your device.
Alarmingly, you may not even realize that your phone has been compromised.
Warmenhoven advises that QR codes should be treated with the same suspicion as any other potentially harmful link.