This scam, the Fake Parking Attendant Scam has been around for a while. There are more high-tech variants of the scheme - ones that direct the unwary to a fake site via a QR code - but this version is solely low-tech.

The way it’s set up is this: you need to park, usually for an attaction or an event. On your way in, there’s a parking attendant who will cheerfully take your money. You don’t think anything of it because parking usually costs money, and it’s somehow more comforting to hand your money to a kind attendant, usually wearing some kind of high-vis vest. Later that day, or maybe later, you find out the parking lot attendant is not a worker, but a scammer, and has disappeared with your money

If you’re lucky, the parking didn’t actually cost anything and you’re out a bit of money. If the scammer is running the scheme, you may be out money and find yourself on the hook for a ticket, a fine, or a tow - usually for parking illegally or for failing to pay for parking.

How to protect yourself

This is one of the harder ones to catch due to businesses sometimes opening up private parking for event parking. Nowadays it’s a bit harder to pull off due to a lot of places going to electronic payments (thus new methods such as QR code stickers pointing to fake payment websites becoming a thing), but is still a thriving industry. If you can, book your parking ahead of time and/or make note of parking lots around the area. Use machines, not people. These people work their scam on trust, so rely on common sense.