Scam QR codes on parking ticket machines are looking to trick residents out of their money, Reading Borough Council has warned.
Several stickers were spotted by Civil Enforcement Officers on their routine patrols and removed where they were found.
The stickers show a QR code with the branding and logo of the PayByPhone parking company, which does facilitate mobile phone payments at car parks across the country.
But the stickers that have been slapped on parking ticket machines in Reading are part of a scam, the council has said.
The QR scam has been reported across the country, with the suspicious stickers sighted in Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Somerset this summer.
A spokesperson from Reading Borough Council said: "Several on-street parking machines in the town centre have been found with false QR codes stuck on this week.
"We would urge drivers not to use the QR codes as they are a scam.
"The only ways to pay for on-street parking in Reading are by cash, by phone using RingGo and via the RingGo phone app."
Last week, the council had to warn residents not to respond to text messages that claimed they had received a parking fine from their "local authority."
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