The darknet started selling fake QR codes to visit Moscow cafes

Evgeny Voloshin, director of BI.ZONE expert services, told RIA Novosti that at least ten advertisements for the sale of fake QR codes were found on the forums.

Recall that from June 28, Moscow cafes and restaurants began to let visitors in only upon presentation of a QR code proving that a citizen had recently been ill, vaccinated, or the result of his PCR test is negative. You can get such a QR code in the electronic medical card in the UMIAS.INFO mobile application or on the mos.ru portal, on the State Services website or in the “State Services. Stop coronavirus. ”

At the same time, advertisements for the sale of fake QR codes were published on the darknet back in May.

- Initially, they contained information about the purchase of fake vaccination certificates and their entry into the State Services database. However, after the decision of the Moscow authorities to enter QR codes, the attackers edited the description of the ads and added information that the buyer would be able to generate a real QR code. The average price of a document on the darknet is 11 thousand rubles, - said Evgeny Voloshin.

As indicated in BI.ZONE, the sale of QR codes specifically for restaurants began on the darknet last weekend. And on the forums there are already at least fifty reviews of those who managed to use the illegal service. According to the expert, even applications for generating fake QR codes may soon appear on the “shadow” Internet.

- The system has just been launched, and for now the QR codes will be checked manually. Apparently, the employees of the establishment will check the code using a regular smartphone camera, and with a high flow of customers, they can easily overlook that the code leads to a malicious resource, Voloshin says.

Recall that on June 28, McDonald's restaurants in Moscow joined the pilot project. Commissioner for the restaurant business in the capital, Sergei Mironov, suggested that restaurants in the capital will now lose up to 90% of visitors. In the Moscow region, from June 28, absolutely all restaurants and cafes are closed.