I am naturally suspicious of certain things, such as the honesty of human cold callers who disregard the Do Not Call registry, or obvious recordings over the phone that expect me to believe that the caller is called Olivia and has a pressing interest in how my day is going.
Then, there are the pleasant-voiced male robot-callers who insist that---according to their files--you have been in a recent vehicle accident that wasn't your fault, and haven't been compensated.
If a recording is calling, they are recording your every word.
Just as the craze for "selfies" baffles me and arouses my suspicions, so does the madness of QR codes. QR is for "Quick Response".Why does everyone promote them and have them? What is the purpose of taking a photographs of something you cannot read in order to avoid typing a url and knowing which website you are visiting?
What other information is hidden in that maze of rectangles? Who benefits? Are there cookies? When you photograph a QR code, what information do you share permanently? And with whom?
Location, date, time... but your smart phone tells everyone that already. There must be more.
What if the QR code was put wherever it is by a cyber criminal, maybe stuck on top of a legitimate one. How would you know?
Once upon a time, Lily Tomlin's Ernestine the Telephone Operator was funny and resonated. Someone who wanted to get in touch with someone else spoke into the instrument, told the operator whom they wanted and the operator plugged a male attachment into a female receptor. One trusted that Ernestine did not put you through to the prosecution instead of the defense... assuming one wanted to consult a lawyer.
Now, one has no idea how you get through, or to where you got through.
If there was malware on the QR code, and by photographing it, you also downloaded something malicious, how would you know? Unless of course, it was ransomware.
You might give a spoofed site your credit card or banking information, or membership details and contact list and saved passwords to an identity thief.
The fake page might charge you fees, and trick you into agreeing to pay, when your intention was to snag a freebie or a coupon and save money, or to order a pizza delivery.
Nicholas Davis has advice on how to outsmart scammers, but there is effort involved.
To be utterly fanciful, you could also be innocently implicated in a crime, or framed for a crime. If you happen to have unscrupulous rivals, some career-ending photographs could be inserted into your deleted files (which are usually never deleted entirely).
As with magic, there is always a cost for using it, and what seems fun and convenient may not be all that it seems.
All the best,
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