Visitors to the Riverside Festival of Lights have been warned of a parking scam

As visitors flock to Riverside for the annual Festival of Lights, city officials are warning people to watch out for fake QR codes sent by scammers at parking stations.

Fraudulent QR codes direct people to websites that ask for credit or debit card information in an apparent attempt to steal financial data.

“Scammers were entering different information into the QR code than would direct them to a place that looked the same” in a city parking lot, said Ryan Railsback, the police department's public information officer.

The city has tried to find and remove fake QR codes, “but we want the public to know,” Railsback said. He recommended going directly to the city's parking website instead of scanning the city's QR code to be safe.

For decades, attending the Festival of Lights based at the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa has been a holiday rite of passage for many locals and out-of-town visitors, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators each year.