Citi Bikes Stolen By Scammers Who Cracked The QR Code

Local crooks are pedaling a new scam.

They steal Citi bikes by exchanging QR codes on two bikes close to each other at a docking station, then waiting for an unsuspecting cyclist to try to unlock a bike with their smartphone app.

The app doesn’t work for the rider but unlocks the nearby Citi Bike with the code switched, where a thief waits, jumps on the bike and leaves.

The scammed ride is only worth $ 3 on its own. But the victimized customer could be forced to pay for the bike at $ 1,200 if it ends up being lost or stolen. They also find themselves without a means of getting around town.

“It happens every day,” says Hell’s Kitchen hobbyist sleuth Richard, who captured video of the scam in action at the Citi Bike dock near the corner of West 43rd Street and 10th Avenue in Manhattan.

The video shows two teenagers circling around the docking station when a man uses his phone to scan the QR code on one of the bikes. An unlocking sound, familiar to Citi Bike riders, can be heard. But the bicycle in front of the man will not move.

One of the boys, who is waiting a few yards away, pulls out another bike and pedals the wrong way to West 43rd Street.

The man becomes visibly agitated when the bicycle does not come out of the dock.

“These kids just left with your bike,” Richard explains. “They stole your bike by disabling the QR codes. So now they can roll with your dime.

Afterwards, the boys in the video threatened him and his dog, Richard claimed, so he asked not to be identified by his full name.

A biker named Dust_Whisperer recently posted his experience on Reddit:

“I pulled out my phone, scanned the QR code, and instead of my bike doing ‘ding’, this person’s e-bike did ‘ding’ instead. I quickly realized that they had previously exchanged the QR code stickers and taken “my” bike, “he wrote.

The post added: “Kudos to them for the hack … but it was boring to deal with.”

“Citi Bike is aware of this issue and although it has not been widespread, we have been actively working to address it in several ways, including improved QR decals,” said the Citi Bike spokesperson, Jordan Levine.

The scam comes at a time when Citi Bike traffic is at an all time high.

June and July were two of the busiest months in program history, with a total of over 6.2 million trips in New York City, including a single-day high of 126,099 trips on July 24 alone, according to Levine.