Melbourne Mayor says vandalism of QR codes for reporting graffiti 'frustrating'

abc.net.au

6 pointsadrian_mrd4 comments

They’re very lucky the QR codes were simply replaced with a link to a pro-graffiti documentary. Whoever did this could have directed people to a site to steal personally identifying information and/or any number of scams.

Your fundamental point being any QR code for any purpose anywhere risks this?

>Your fundamental point being any QR code for any purpose anywhere risks this?

Well, something similar already happened for parkings in Texas, and another one - seemingly - about QR swapping for rent bikes :

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29814973

I think it greatly depends on how the app on the phone behaves (I am not familiar with them, but I have read reports of apps that directly access the link in the QR code and even if it asks for confirmation if the link looks legit enough it will trick many people).

Love how the mayor describes it as hacking. I mean kinda, but not really.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com