Don't scan that QR code on Montreal parking meters. It's likely a fraud
The Agence de mobilité durable de Montréal said in a media release on Tuesday that it was aware that some of its signs had been vandalized with a QR code that wasn't supposed to be there.
The agency hung the signs on parking metres across the city to encourage people to download their new parking app, Mobicité. The signs have no QR code, but some users have reported seeing one posted on them.
Do not scan the QR code, the agency said, it may direct you to a fraudulent or malicious website.
"Our team is working hard to identify and remove them as quickly as possible," the media release said. "Thank you for your vigilance and for reporting any suspicious signs to us."
The agency changed its parking app from P$ Service mobile, which allowed users to pay for parking, to the new app, Mobicité, to allow additional features in the coming years.
For now, the Mobicité app will allow users to only pay for parking, like the old app did. But down the line, Laurent Chevrot, the general manager of the agency, says the app will add other functionalities over the next few years, such as the ability to provide parking information and customer service.
"With the other application, that wasn't possible," he said.
Mobicité rolled out at the beginning of June. It cost $719,000 and took 10 months to produce.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Two dead, one in critical condition after hit and run on Siksika Nation: RCMP
Two people are dead and one person is in critical condition after a vehicle collision on Siksika Nation, say RCMP. Gelichen RCMP responded to a collision involving pedestrians at 9:30 p.m. Saturday on Siksika Nation, RCMP said in a release. 'Five people were walking when they were hit by a vehicle,' according to police. Two residents of Siksika Nation — a 27-year-old man and a 45-year-old man — were pronounced dead, while a 45-year-old woman, also a Siksika Nation resident, is in critical condition. Two other people were uninjured. The vehicle fled the scene. The RCMP major crimes unit is investigating. RCMP ask anyone who has video footage of the area between 8 and 10 p.m. to contact them. Anyone with information is asked to contact Gleichen RCMP at 403-734-3923, or to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or through or the P3 Tips app.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
5 Creepy, Dark, And Messed-Up Things I Learned This Week
Hello! I'm Crystal, and I write the That Got Dark newsletter, BuzzFeed's weekly roundup of all things creepy, macabre, and horrible AF. And if you looooove this kind of content, you should subscribe to get your weekly dopamine fix of the macabre delivered RIGHT to your inbox! Here's what the newsletter is covering this week: Related: 1987 sleepwalking murder case of Kenneth Parks in Toronto, Canada. One night, ALL while sleepwalking, Parks got out of bed and drove almost 15 miles from his home, where he killed his mother-in-law, then attempted to kill his father-in-law. Parks, who said he was unconscious through the whole ordeal, had entered his in-laws' home with a key he'd been given in the past. He bludgeoned his mother-in-law to death with a tire iron, then attempted to choke his father-in-law to death, who miraculously survived the attack. In an extra surprising twist, Parks then drove straight to a police station (still covered in blood), and told the cops, 'I think I have just killed two people.' Parks would even go on to say he was fast asleep when he surrendered. A year later, he was acquitted of murder and attempted murder using a rare legal defense known as 'non-insane automatism,' supported by evidence of parasomnia (a sleep disorder). Related: existence of Heritage USA, a massive Christian theme park and resort complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina, that was built in 1978 by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. At its peak, Heritage USA drew 5–6 million visitors annually, billing itself as the third most-visited park in the US and being called a "Christian Disneyland." It closed in 1989 after a major financial scandal, the loss of its tax-exempt status, and damage from Hurricane Hugo. Today, some structures remain, with parts repurposed by a church ministry, but nearly everyone who's seen it since says its abandoned state and sketchy history make it very creepy. Above is "Praise the Lord" board chairman Rev. Jerry Falwell sliding down the 52-foot water slide at Heritage USA. And here's what one Buzzfeed Community member had to say about their IRL experience with the eerie theme park: 'In the mid-'80s, my brother returned to school as a journalism major at the University of South Carolina. One of his assignments was to write a story about the newly opened theme park. So, one weekend, off he went. He later told me that the whole time he was there, he felt like he had to keep looking over his shoulder because he felt like a couple of guys were going to come up behind him, grab him, and say, 'You don't belong here.' Wish he was still here to tell the story himself.' —Anonymous horrible case of Genie, a 13-year-old feral child who was discovered in Arcadia, California, in 1970 after years of horrific abuse. Related: Genie (which was a pseudonym) was discovered after being brutally isolated and starved, strapped either to a potty chair or a crib, and forbidden to speak by her abusive father for almost her entire life. Her treatment had been so bad, it resulted in severe physical and linguistic deprivation. She was subsequently placed under intensive study and gained some vocabulary and basic communication skills, but failed to acquire normal grammar. Genie's case became known as one of the "worst cases of child abuse" in the US, and ultimately raised ethical concerns about the treatment of vulnerable subjects and their rights. tragic death of actor Angus Cloud, who died of an accidental drug overdose — a lethal mix of methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, and benzodiazepines — on July 31, 2023, in his family's home in Oakland, California. Cloud had reportedly been staying with his mother following the death of his father in May. In an interview with People, Cloud's mother, Lisa, said that she found her son in the morning slumped over his desk. She tried to resuscitate him, but by the time first responders arrived, it was too late, and they later determined Cloud had already been deceased by the time they'd even been dispatched. Lisa explained to People, "He got tired from lack of oxygen. Everything just slowed down, and eventually his heart stopped and he went to sleep. But he didn't kill himself.' the case of gruesome serial killer William Bonin, known as the 'Freeway Killer,' who raped and murdered at least 21 teenage boys and young men in Southern California between 1979 and 1980. Related: Bonin would lure victims into his van, often with help from accomplices, then assault and kill them, dumping their bodies along freeways. Caught in 1980, he was convicted of 14 murders and died by lethal injection in 1996 — California's first to be carried out by that method. His last meal: Two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three pints of coffee ice cream, and three six-packs of Coca-Cola. I think that's just about enough unsettling stuff for the week, don't you? In the next issue, we'll tackle the story of the 'Twitter Killer' and the infamous murder of Sharon Tate. Love this kind of content? Subscribe to the That Got Dark newsletter to get a weekly post just like this delivered directly to your inbox. It's a scary good time you won't want to miss. Do you have a weird, creepy, or shocking story you want to share? Perhaps there's a strange Wikipedia page you want to talk about? Tell me all about it at thatgotdark@ and who knows, maybe it'll be featured in a future edition of That Got Dark! If you are concerned that a child is experiencing or may be in danger of abuse, you can call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 ( service can be provided in over 140 languages. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here. Also in BuzzFeed: Also in BuzzFeed: Also in BuzzFeed:


Digital Trends
6 hours ago
- Digital Trends
5 ways to upgrade your PC without spending a fortune
Without beating around the bush, PC gaming is expensive these days. Or, at the very least, it certainly feels like it is. With the prices of the best graphics cards still way too high, it might feel like you're stuck with your same old PC for the foreseeable future. Good news: It's not universally that bad. In fact, there are plenty of PC upgrades ranging from free to not-too-pricey that you can jump on today. I'm a PC builder with 20 years of experience, and here's what I recommend doing if you want to give your gaming rig a boost without breaking the bank. Better PC without spending a dime Short of your friends and family suddenly deciding to gift you PC hardware, you can't get any serious gains without spending money — but you can get some improvements. There are ways to boost your existing PC and make it run better, and some of those things can give you improvements in games. Recommended Videos This is especially true if you think that your PC seems to be struggling right now. Thermal throttling, crashes, and disappointing performance can often be addressed without upgrading the hardware — all you need is some good ol' PC troubleshooting. Start by cleaning up your PC, and by that I mean, get rid of all the random junk you've probably accumulated over time. (I know I have an alarming tendency to do that.) Uninstall unused programs, disable startup apps via the Task Manager to make your PC boot faster, and clear temporary files and cookies. Install one of the best antivirus programs and give your PC a thorough scan. Lastly, update all your drivers, including those from Nvidia and AMD. Optimize your settings, both for your PC and on a game-by-game basis. If your PC is getting old, scaling back in settings like View Distance, Projected Textures, or (duh) Ray Tracing can make a world of difference for your frame rates. If applicable, try out upscaling technologies from your GPU vendor, be it Nvidia's DLSS, AMD's FSR, or Intel's XeSS. Next, I recommend cleaning the actual hardware — a process that should be done once every few months, but often goes neglected for years. We have a detailed guide on how to clean your PC, so check it out. These won't make or break your performance, but are a good first step when you're in a pinch. And honestly, cleaning your PC can affect the temperatures in a major way, which translates to better performance. More (or faster) RAM How much RAM do you really need? There's an answer, I promise, and yet, my gut instinct is always to simply say 'more.' I always have an urge to buy more RAM, or at least faster RAM, and it's something I have to fight myself about regularly. Well, don't be like me — instead of debating, just do it. Get yourself a RAM upgrade. It's one of the cheapest ways to give your whole PC a boost — not just in gaming, but overall. Realistically, if you're already sitting at 32GB RAM, you don't need to double it. 64GB is reserved for enthusiasts and most of us don't need it, so if budget is tight, stick to your current RAM and try something else. But if you're under 32GB, that is the current sweet spot in a gaming PC, so buying extra might help your PC handle multitasking like a champ. In games, you'll likely see an improvement in loading times and overall performance. RAM speed and generation matters, too. If you're on an older motherboard, you most likely need to stick to DDR4 RAM. But if you're using an AMD AM5 processor, or an Intel 12th-gen and up CPU, you might be able to buy DDR5 — which opens up a lot of room for speed-based RAM upgrades. Older DDR5 RAM runs at 5,000MHz or less, but newer memory can easily go above 7,000MHz. Want DDR5 RAM? Check out this Crucial Pro DDR5-6000 32GB kit with reasonably tight timings. DDR4 RAM is cheaper, and you can snag 32GB of DDR4-3600 RAM from T-Group for $69. Better SSD? Yes, please! When it comes to storage, gamers can never have enough. I bought myself a 2TB SSD thinking I'd have plenty of room, and I was really wrong. I ended up buying an extra SSD just to store my games. If you don't have an SSD yet, then this is the single most impactful upgrade you can get — hands down. But, realistically, you're probably already using SSD storage. No worries, because you can still score a great upgrade for cheap. Upgrading from a SATA SSD to an NVMe drive is still going to feel like night and day. NVMe SSD to faster NVMe SSD won't feel as impactful, but you'll still shave off a few seconds from every loading screen and your Windows boot time. It helps, and SSDs are reasonably affordable these days. The drive I recently bought was the Lexar 2TBN NM790 with 7,400MB/s in read speeds, and I can heartily recommend it. If you want something smaller and cheaper, it's also available in 1TB for $68, so check it out. A new CPU could be a huge deal CPUs are impactful upgrades, but they're tricky. It's not like RAM or SSD, where you can pretty much pop them in and out of your PC at any given time. Every CPU is locked to a specific motherboard socket, which means that your upgrade path is limited to whenever the CPU vendor changes sockets. In the case of Intel, that happens often. You can generally expect Intel to switch sockets once every one or two generations. Meanwhile, AMD's AM4 platform has lasted for years, and the company still releases new CPUs made for those motherboards. The AM5 platform, on the other hand, is still new and likely not in need of upgrading. It's hard for me to give you a blanket recommendation here without knowing your motherboard, but I'll say this: Spending $100 to $200 on a new CPU might make more of a difference than you think. Most games rely on the GPU more so than the CPU, but even GPU-bound games benefit from a faster processor. The rest of your PC does, too. Have a look at our list of the best budget processors and pick the one that fits your motherboard. Steer clear of motherboard upgrades — that's neither easy nor cheap. Improve your cooling You may have followed my advice (in which case, thanks for making me feel useful) and cleaned your PC, but there's only so much you can achieve with a can of compressed air. Sometimes, you should just go ahead and upgrade your cooler to give your PC the (literal) breathing room that it needs. This will be an especially impactful upgrade if you currently have a stock cooler combined with a mid-to-high-end CPU. While stock coolers are meant to be good enough to handle the processor they come paired with, they don't quite have the power of a third-party CPU cooler. I've personally witnessed many PCs, including my own, that were completely transformed by a CPU cooler upgrade — and those aren't too pricey. When it comes to cooling upgrades, you have three options: Buy a third-party air cooler Buy an all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler Stock up on some more case fans You can do two of those things at once, as case fans don't cost a whole lot. As far as air coolers go, I heartily recommend the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE, which is just $37 on Amazon. It's versatile, so chances are it'll fit your motherboard, so make sure to double-check. Meanwhile, AIO coolers get a bad rep for being expensive, but you can get this 360mm Thermalright Frozen Notte model for just $55. Again, a pretty versatile beast, but do your research before shopping to make sure it'll suit your case. No matter which upgrade you go with, you might be surprised how a little investment can help your PC in a major way. While graphics cards are expensive right now, these upgrades can help you get by until things improve in that regard.