Bogotá’s city government has warned of a new estafa built around fake traffic citations and QR codes left on parked vehicles. The trap is aimed at drivers who park on public streets or in roadside bays and then return to find what looks like an official notice on the windshield or body of the car.

The warning matters now because the scheme is already circulating in the capital, and it is designed to catch people at the moment they are most likely to react quickly. A driver sees a supposed fine, scans the code to check it, and is pushed to a fraudulent page that can expose personal, banking and financial data.

That method was reviewed by the District Secretariat of Security, Coexistence and Justice and the Police Gaula, which said criminals are leaving flyers, brochures or stickers on vehicles parked in Bogotá. The papers carry a supposed traffic violation and a QR code inviting the owner to consult or solve the alleged citation, but the code leads to malicious links instead of any legitimate service.

The part that makes the scam work is the look of authority. The documents are made to resemble an official traffic ticket, yet the city says real citations are not issued through informal papers attached to vehicles with unknown links or suspicious QR codes. That gap between what the paper seems to be and what it actually is is what turns a parking spot into a point of attack.

Officials said any question about fines or traffic citations must be handled only through the official channels of the competent authorities. Anyone who finds a supposed citation with a QR code on a vehicle should distrust it first and verify the information directly before doing anything else. People who have already fallen victim can call the AIDE team at 377 95 95, option 5, extension 1137, for guidance.

The city has not said how many cases have been detected or how long this version of the estafa has been in use, but the alert is clear enough for drivers in Bogotá: do not scan the code, do not trust the paper at face value, and check any sanction only through official channels.