Man receives fake parking ticket in a Buckhead parking lot

Warning about fake parking tickets

A man says he got a parking ticket with a QR code on it, but when he went to pay it in person, he found the address belonged to a car shop. Atlanta officials say tickets will not have QR codes on them.

ATLANTA - A man working as an Uber Eats delivery driver received a fake parking ticket while picking up an order in Buckhead.

Luke Waters said he briefly parked in the Buckhead Marketplace lot on West Paces Ferry Road on Sunday.

He came out to find a parking ticket on his windshield.

"When I got back, I saw a ticket underneath my windshield wiper. I looked at it, and it looked legitimate," Waters said.

The company that issued the citation was "ATL Citations."

Waters said he found the address on the company's website and decided to go pay the ticket in person.

"I had the morning off, and just kind of wanted to do it,' he said.

He drove to an address on Joseph E Lowery Boulevard in northwest Atlanta and walked inside with a parking ticket in hand.

But he learned was the address belonged to a car repair shop.

"I went in there, and they had no idea what it was. They had never heard of it," he said.

The ticket had a QR code, that brings the user to a website atlcitations.com.

It lists an address, phone number, and a place to enter payment information.

It even encourages people to come and pay for their ticket in person.

The ticket said "City of Atlanta" at the top and even has an officer's name, as well as some vague descriptions of the vehicle.

The Atlanta Department of Transportation told FOX 5 the citation Waters received is fake.

It has very similar colors and information to a real citation. Close enough to potentially fool someone.

"Whoever did this is pretty good. They're probably pretty good with computers. High attention to details. Created an entire website for it," Waters said.

The Department of Transportation said its tickets never have a QR code.