Canary
A QR code is not just an image. It’s a set of digital instructions for your phone. Your camera shows a short preview — a URL, a payment handle, or a network to join — and a button to continue.
But behind that button are instructions your phone blindly follows: open this link, send this payment, join this network. Encoded QR data can trigger dozens of integrations with your phone. You’re trusting a square with dots you can’t read.
That’s the part hijackers count on — a fake sticker over a real QR, a short link that hides the final destination, a payment code pointing at the wrong wallet. Before you know it, your device has acted and you’re screwed.
Scammers are slapping fake QR codes on parking meters and mailing them on unexpected packages.
QR-code phishing — now on the EU’s official threat radar.
Canary expanded this shortened URL and found a phishing site.
Canary revealed the recipient of the financial transaction.
Canary verified the destination and removed in-URL trackers.
Canary understands all QR data types and assesses each integration instruction. It runs its own checks on-device and queries live reputation databases, so it catches new scams or exploits as they emerge.
Canary was built by people who don’t want to be tracked either. Your scans aren’t tied to your name, your email, or any identity — Canary never asks for them. All of Canary’s network checks — scoring and validation alike — run through our own servers, so your phone never connects directly to whatever is being checked. The only data we keep is anonymous stats and threat types — never the contents of what you scan.
Read the privacy policy →