QR Codes allow scammers to bypass anti-virus and other protections used to protect you from malicious links and do some serious damage.

The pandemic lead to wide spread use of QR codes from menus to ways of cashless payment, we got used to using them all the time but they aren’t all safe. Bad actors can abuse the trust we have developed to steal money from you or hijack your phone.

Before you scan a code, be mindful of the source. Is it from a person or organization that can be trusted? Could someone have printed up a malicious QR code and stuck it someplace trusted like a gas pump?

When in doubt you can use a scanner that doesn’t automatically run the link such as QR Stuff Scanner but the best bet is to never scan at all.