Whistler Officials Discover "Fraudulent" QR Codes In Parking Lots
Paid parking at ski areas has been a point of contention since resorts started implementing it.
As if skiing wasn't expensive enough already, paying for parking has unfortunately become an expected part of the ski experience in many places. After all, there is something to be said for the convenience of many paid lots. While you may not like it, odds are at some point you've accepted paying Vail Resorts, or whomever, $18 a day for parking, but what if that money wasn't actually going to the resort?
On December 27, 2025, several stickers imitating PayByPhone signs with fake QR codes were found on pay parking terminals in Whistler's Day Lots 1-5, in the Main Street parking areas, and in the Marketplace parking lot off Lorimer Road.
The fraudulent QR codes directed users to a fake website that collected payment, rather than to the real PayByPhone module. The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW), which does not use QR codes for parking payment, discovered these codes fairly quickly, and they were all removed by December 28.
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The Resort Municipality of Whistler believes that whoever distributed the QR codes set up the fake website to receive the payments from them in the form of credit card fraud.
RMOW encourages anyone who scanned the QR codes to contact their credit card companies immediately, report fraudulent activity, and cancel their card. Visitors who believed that they paid for parking but were issued a citation can dispute the ticket here.
Whistler reminds all guests, again, that they do not use QR codes to pay for parking fees.
"The RMOW’s parking system is a safe system which is monitored constantly to prevent fraud and ensure the information collected is protected to the highest possible industry standards," writes the RMOW. "Parking payment fraud is a known form of theft which has affected other municipal systems in B.C."