What's the defense against this for the average person? Every city has a different parking app or site, there's no way for someone to know like with their bank.
I don’t know why people are throwing their hands up at technology and using quarters when the apps are much more convenient (especially since you can remotely extend your parking time).
Because popping a quarter into the machine is much more convenient for most people than downloading a questionable app, typing in your license plate, address, and credit credit card.
I'd be willing to bet the number of people who need to remotely extend their parking time by app instead of feeding the meter are vastly outnumbered by the people who just want to park downtown for 30 minutes to grab a sandwich and move on with their day.
Not to mention it locks out anything that isn't Android or iOS compatible. It's a niche market, but even Android was basically devoid of apps at one point because everyone was targeting the iPhone.
Keep quarters in your car and pockets. Sounds stone-aged. But it worked in 2000 and 2010 also.
many scams look just like legitimate incompetent services, or legitimate well crafted services.
there is a meme going around about how scammers target gullible people to filter out more skeptical people, but really thats just one segment of the population.