Criminals Sending QR Codes in Phishing, Malware Campaigns

Analysis of APWG and Mimecast findings shows attackers increasingly embed malicious QR codes in mass email campaigns between Oct 2024 and Mar 2025, with roughly 1.7 million malicious QR codes detected and an average of 2.7 million emails containing QR codes per day; campaigns used public QR generators and URL shorteners to obfuscate destinations, targeted multiple sectors (retail, manufacturing, construction) and popular brands (e.g., Mastercard), and aimed to harvest credentials or distribute malware.