To Trust or Not To Trust?

Oct 18, 2005 | 6 Comments

On Saturday Apple advertising smurfs were plastering selected posters around Tokyo with peel-off plastic iPod Nanos. They were as popular as the real thing* pretty much being removed by passing punters as soon as they went up. The back of the Plastic Nano included a QR Bar Code linking to blurb and downloads related to the product. Anyone can create a QR bar code using a tool such as the solid online Pukupi Codeatron.

Scams are and will be possible with every medium - for example premium rate phone numbers, text messages, falsified email headers, URLs that are not what they seem. A question to the more technologically minded of you - just how hackable is what happens once you read a QR bar code with a phone? Anyone know of real world examples of malicious, or mis-representative QR bar codes?

* and currently about as useful as the real thing

6 Comments

Chris | October 18, 2005 2:58 PM

WIth the DoCoMo set, you can ring a number, insert a contact or go to a url. All require confirmation, I think, but I don't know how much information is presented (i.e. the actual number or URL). Maybe these scams aren't a problem in Japan!

Other operators have added extra sets - location to get a map, etc.

Andrew | October 19, 2005 4:29 AM

My off-topic marketing suggestion for QR codes: Make a big one, really big--billboard-sized, in the middle of the city, with no other signifying markers or brand names. Large enough so that standing at street level and snapping a pic would provide sufficient resolution. Let those Parco painters hand carve one with little details in the pixels, visible up close, that wouldn't confuse the camera from a distance.

For the right demographic/product/company, word of mouth and the novelty factor would make it successful. Actually, I'd be surprised if this hadn't been tried already.

Jan | October 19, 2005 7:41 AM

Sounds like the kind of stunt Bape (http://www.bape.com) would try out. There is a giant QR tag appeared in Ginza, but there's nothing particularly smart about sizing up.

{click} timer is on. Lets see how long it takes before QR codes within QR codes within QR codes happens.

robi | October 23, 2005 6:22 AM

Why did you remove my comment? Or were you just taking the domain name seriously? I really like(d) your work.

Jan | October 23, 2005 8:24 AM

Hei Robi,

> Why did you remove my comment?

Multi-tasking error - sorry.

Jan

Robi | October 25, 2005 4:37 AM

Thanks! :)