Scammers are targeting San Franciscans with fake parking tickets that direct victims to a payment website that looks very similar to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s.
City transit spokesperson Stephen Chun told The Standard the agency is aware of the scam and has instructed parking officers to remove and report any false tickets.
A Reddit post on the r/SanFrancisco subreddit page has been circulating online, showing an image of a fake parking ticket and warning city drivers about the scam.
The image includes Friday’s date, one day ahead of when the image of the ticket was posted, and a QR code that directs anyone who uses it to a fake SFMTA website.
“I know everyone hates getting citations in San Francisco,” the Reddit user wrote. “Scammers are getting more BOLD!! Issuing fake parking citations!! FYI: parking in sf is regulated by SFMTA, it will never have a city logo on a citation !! Please watch out, if you received one like this, toss it out because the QR code links to your bank account!!!”
“We’ve been recently notified by multiple people and have seen the original Reddit post,” Chun said. “Our staff is aware and our parking control officers have instructions to remove and report any false tickets they may come across. We encourage customers to check the accuracy of the parking ticket by visiting Citation Payment and Inquiry.”