Italian Postal and Communications Police warns of QR code insurance scams

The Italian Postal Police have issued a warning about QR code insurance scams targeting citizens.

According to its alert, fraudsters have been actively contacting consumers via phone calls, messages, and sponsored ads on social media to promote great car insurance deals.

How does the scam work?

Upon contacting potential victims, the fake insurance operator sends a message containing a QR code supposedly associated with the customer’s car license plate.

The scammer says that this QR code can be shown at any authorized ticket office where the user can make the payment. As expected, the fraudulent QR code contains no details of his insurance but is linked to the scammer’s name.

Any payments are made into the scammer’s account, and the victim is left with no insurance coverage.

Red flags you need to be aware of

The internet is filled with bogus offers and scams that can lead to severe financial losses and identity theft. Here are some signs of a possible QR code insurance scam:

• You are contacted out of the blue with a tempting insurance offer that sounds too good to be true. The offer has limited availability and you are urged to act quickly or miss out.
• The individual says you can only pay for the deal using the received QR code
• The insurance operator urges you to communicate via WhatsApp or Telegram

To protect your information and money, always stay vigilant with unsolicited correspondence, and research the insurance agency before committing to making payments.

Scrutinize all offers containing QR codes as the sole method for payment and immediately report potential fraud attempts to your bank, credit card operator and the police.

You can also use dedicated tools that sniff out scammers before they can harm you. Bitdefender Scamio is a quick and easy way to check if any QR codes you receive are a scam attempt in disguise.

Scamio is our free AI-powered scam detector that you can access via web browser or Facebook Messenger to check if any message, link or QR codes you receive pose any risk to your online security and finances.

If you want to learn more about QR code scams and Quishing, check out our dedicated blog post.