Let’s revisit the adage that there are two certainties in life – death and taxes – and add a third: computer scams. Indeed, even the Olympic Games, which open next week in Paris, are paying the price, with what is known as quishing, or QR code phishing.

Call it the risks of living in the digital age… and the all-mobile age. Organizers of the Olympic Games (OG) thought they’d make a good deal by placing stickers all over the City of Light featuring one of these famous black-and-white square codes, which you simply scan with your phone’s camera to go directly to the desired website or mobile application.

Olympic-caliber phishing

For the Olympics, it was seen as a simple way of directing the public to online ticketing, the Olympic site map or the connection code to the nearest wifi network. In an age when everyone carries a smartphone in their pocket, but foreign tourists don’t necessarily have a mobile data plan available for roaming, this seems quite natural indeed.

But here’s the thing. These square codes, known as QR codes, have recently been infected by a wave of attempted frauds. People with clearly bad intentions are producing fake QR codes, using the same colors and typography as the QR codes they wish to imitate, and programming them to send their potential victims to fake transactional sites.. . Source