Ride the Lightning

Heinz Ketchup QR Code Takes You to Porn Site

June 22, 2015

It is an old security chestnut: Be wary of QR codes because you don't know where they will take you.

In this story from Gizmodo, Heinz had failed to renew a domain name that it had purchased to run a contest allowing users to design their own ketchup bottle and have it printed. A German porn site called Fundorado snapped the domain name up and guess where you were taken when you used your phone to click on the Heinz QR code?

Yup, you guessed it. No contest, but a German sex-video website.

As we have noted before, cybercriminals use QR codes frequently, in online ads, on the menus restaurants place on their windows, on posters at bus stops and everywhere else.

Keep ignoring those QR codes. Much safer.

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