Question: Shame on the city for leaving motorists vulnerable to scammers. If the city had upgraded its parking meter technology, it wouldn’t have had to rush out the parking app, which scammers have so easily exploited. Who is behind this scam? Is HPD investigating? What should we do if we gave the scam site our information?
Answer: “Any person who believes they were a victim of a credit card breach should file a police report and notify their card issuer immediately,” Travis Ota, a spokesperson for Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services, said Thursday in an email, referring to the scam that misdirected Honolulu drivers from the genuine Park Smarter mobile app to a fraudulent fee-collection website.
The Honolulu Police Department is investigating, and the city will press charges if the culprits are found, he said. The fraudulent website — Parksmarter.app — has been reported to the domain registrar and is no longer active, Ota said.
As you noted, in February the city began using the Park Smarter mobile app to collect payments at about 1,700 digital parking meters that no longer worked because they had relied on now-defunct wireless networks. Park Smarter stickers were placed on those meters directing motorists to download the app and pay by that method; nonpayment was not enforced.
The Park Smarter stickers directed users to the genuine website, ParkSmarter.com. However, scammers replaced those stickers with near-replicas that misdirected drivers to a website where they were told to input their name, billing address, credit card number and license plate number. Fakes were first reported in Waikiki and Kakaako; city workers were dispatched to check all the meters and remove fraudulent stickers.
“The city urges everyone to call 911 if they see someone without a city employee badge tampering with a parking meter,” Ota said.
Other readers asked how much money was lost and how many people were victimized; that was unclear. Ota said the department didn’t know of any individual customers.
On Wednesday, “the fraudulent website was live. It was taken down overnight so the major risk has been alleviated. Additionally, we believe we have removed all the fake stickers. Since the stickers have been removed, the website taken down, and HPD is actively in investigation, motorists have the option of using the official Park Smarter app if they choose. We appreciate the support and the vigilance that we have received from the community,” Ota said Thursday.
Q: Does the fact that scammers exploited the city’s use of the genuine app give pause to plans to install app meters more widely?
A: It doesn’t seem so, based on Ota’s emailed response to that question. “The City’s on-street parking vendor receives annual certification from a third-party Qualified Security Assessor (QSAs) as recognized by the PCI Security Council for Level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Contactless payments are more secure than cash, using tokenization to reduce the risk of fraudulent activity and theft. The City is committed to being vigilant in protecting customers and modernizing its parking program so that customers can have convenient payment methods and can see in real time the availability of parking options,” he said.
Auwe
The city and county at least has the courtesy to upfront notify the public of the fee for using credit cards, unlike many businesses that do not disclose this fee beforehand, leaving customers to contend with the fee when payment is due at the register or after finding the fee on their receipt after payment has been made. — G.G.
Mahalo
A big mahalo to the gentleman who found my debit card and a string of small cards on the ground and turned them in to Longs Kahala. Thank you so very much! You saved me from a lot of worry and trouble! — A grateful 87-year-old kupuna
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
