Fake parking ticket with a QR code or text-to-pay link
Around big events, scammers have used fake parking tickets that tell you to pay through a QR code or a text link. Official city tickets can be checked on the city's own court or violations site, not through a random code on a flyer or windshield.
How it works
You may find a ticket on a car, get a text, or see a sign that looks like a city parking citation. It tells you to pay immediately through a QR code or a link. Missouri's attorney general warned fans heading to Kansas City World Cup games in June 2026 not to pay a suspicious ticket online right away. Official Kansas City parking tickets, that alert said, are issued by the city and can be checked or paid through the official City of Kansas City Violations Bureau. They will not demand payment through an unknown QR code or text link. The same habit helps in any city: verify a ticket on the official portal before you pay.
Red flags
- A parking ticket or message tells you to pay through an unknown QR code or text link.
- The notice appears around a large event or in an unofficial lot.
- You cannot find the citation on the city's official violations or court website.
- The payment page asks for more personal information than a normal parking ticket should need.
What to do
- Do not scan the code or pay from the ticket until you check it on the city's official site.
- Look up the city's parking or municipal court portal yourself and search for the citation.
- If it is not there, treat it as a scam and do not pay.
- Report it to the city if appropriate, and at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Where to report it
- reportfraud.ftc.gov — the FTC's report form.
- ic3.gov — the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.