We should all be knowledgeable about phishing attacks by now, given the number of warnings consumers and businesses get about this type of email fraud. We've even warned about it, in this Take On Payments post last year, and in others. We've also warned about smishing, a variation that uses SMS text messaging rather than email. Vishing is another form of social engineering that we've also mentioned in the blog. It's like phishing but comes through a telephone, often from a spoofed number—one that looks like a legitimate number of a company or agency. All of these varieties of fraudulent attacks have the same goal: to "fish" for your login or account information.
And now there's quishing. Again.
Quishing is not new but has experienced a revival within the criminal element as a result of the increased use of QR codes for digital payments. We first wrote about the risks and benefits of QR codes back in 2012, when they were used predominantly on printed media such as billing statements. The account holder could scan the QR code to go to the biller's payment website to pay their bill. We wrote about them again in late 2020, when merchants used them in the pandemic as an alternative contactless payment technology to near field communication. Since then, the use of QR codes has exploded—not just for payment applications, but also for other contactless usages born from health concerns: to let people access digital restaurant menus, for example, or to get detailed product information. QR codes are easy to implement, but that also makes them easy to alter without detection. The criminal sends an email with a QR code that, when captured by the victim's camera, opens a counterfeit website that may look like a merchant's legitimate website but is intended to steal account credentials. The email may contain a coupon to give the victim further incentive to capture the QR code. Unfortunately, detecting quishing attacks is difficult for email malware applications since the QR code is embedded in the email message.
QR code manipulation can also take place on printed material. Cases have been reported where stickers with altered QR codes have been placed on event posters at a venue or in other public places. When the person accesses the fraudulent QR code to purchase event tickets, the criminal captures the payment card information then uses that information to make fraudulent purchases. Meanwhile, the victim shows up at the event and is told their ticket confirmation is invalid.
The same defensive measures used to spot phishing, smishing, and vishing attacks should be used to guard against quishing attacks. Be wary of messages from unknown sources, especially if they offer an incentive or convey a sense of urgency. Always be suspicious of any request for you to "confirm" your account credentials. Keeping a solid defensive position will help keep you safe from these attacks.
By David Lott, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed