The Poole Neighbourhood Policing Team would like to echo what BCP Council and other policing areas have said regarding QR codes appearing on parking meter machines, particularly in beach car parks.

QR codes are 2D barcodes, once scanned via a smartphone they redirect you to a website. Fraudsters are utilising these barcodes to phish for information for financial gain - It's called 'QR Code Phishing'.

The fraudster places a QR code on a parking meter which then directs the user to a malicious website pretending to be a method of payment for the car park. If you see these codes, do not scan them and resort to the legitimate payment methods displayed such as Pay to Park, RingGo and JustPark.

The fake codes were put on parking meters in Sandbanks, Branksome Dene, Branksome Chine, Highcliffe and Bournemouth Town Centre car parks.