Scanning QR codes can be as smooth as scanning barcodes with a Bluetooth barcode scanner Malaysia, but even though QR codes themselves are not threats, the website you are led to can be. The problem lies more on the contents behind those innocent squares and the codes, where scanning a random code can open the floodgates to dampen your smartphone’s security, twist it like a sponge, and toss it aside like a corpse.
Thus, if you are still scanning QR codes from unknown sources, you should at least tighten your phone’s security first, so you have a better chance at being protected from many of the online threats banging on your phone’s door with sledgehammers. If you keep your awareness up and about, you could also, hopefully, have the time to get out of dodge before that malicious website is loaded.
So what sort of online dangers your phone’s security may have to face should you scan the wrong QR code?
Malware
Disguising a malware as a QR code is not very difficult for scammers to do, assuming that victims are still unaware that they are scanning codes from unknown, questionable sources. All the scammers have to do is to create a QR code, add logos of Google or Apple app stores, maybe make fake pointers and paste them wherever.
Scanning this QR code will prompt your phone to automatically take action, such as downloading an app from a fake website. The very app is the malware that they slotted in, and you may not even know it until it is too late, such is the case of malware types like the classic trojan.
QRishing
QRishing is just phishing but with a QR code. The gist of phising is that it aims for your login or sensitive credentials by posing as a legitimate entity. For instance, this QR code leads you to a URL that resembles your bank’s real website, and prompts you to login your username and password as it would in its homepage.
Unless you are good at this, you may not be able to detect impostor signs early on, so you get duped into thinking that the website is legit. After logging in, the data will be sent to the scammer and with the info in their hands, they can finally use it to access your account and take your hard earned savings to waste on more gacha like miserable blokes.
Compromised location
If you are scanning a QR code without verifying its legitimacy, chances are that you might reveal your own location and compromise your privacy through your own actions. This is especially prevalent when you want to maybe get to an event quickly and you use a Google Maps QR code in a rush.
The data of your whereabouts will be sent to third parties and realizing this will automatically make you diagnosed with paranoia, because now you have no idea what the party will do with this information. At this point, you are wishing that you would rather be a little late to the party and keep going to your destination as you did before you scanned.