Streamer accidentally showed restaurant's QR code during livestream — viewers started ordering food until his bill hit $12,000

23-year-old Twitch streamer Nicholas Fosco, a.k.a. Lacy, will never forget this trip to Japan with his girlfriend, Darla Claire. He was streaming a debut broadcast from the Zauo Shibuya restaurant in Tokyo when something happened that cost him almost 1.6 million yen ($12,000). During the livestream, he ended up briefly revealing the table’s QR code. Soon, his table was flooded with a long scroll of bills from items that viewers had ordered online using the code, as per an October 29, 2026, report by The Sun. An October 29, 2026, video of the livestream shared by @TMZ has since been viewed nearly 11 million times.

Dinner turned to disaster

According to the International Business Times (IBT), they were enjoying their meal when a server walked to him and asked whether he had ordered 20 drinks. The footage shows Lacy eating with his girlfriend when a server comes and shows him a long, stretched bill of 500,000 yen. He repeats the amount, apparently shocked, then puts his head on his forehead and cups his lips. “So it was ¥1.5 million—he comes over with one receipt, ¥500,000; I thought it was done. Comes over with two more; it turns out it was ¥1.6 million that you guys ordered in food,” the streamer said.

About 15 plates of food ended up on his table, far more than he and his girlfriend could eat. He asked the restaurant staff to hand out all the food to the families in the restaurant. The incident left him upset with the viewers, who played such a gross prank. “I’ve never seen anything like that,” he lamented. “I had to pay $12,000 because you guys thought it’d be funny to order a bunch of food,” he told the viewers, angrily.  

Restaurant has disputing account

Although Lacy claimed that he paid $12,000, the restaurant countered his claims, per Dexerto. Zauo Shibuya admitted that third parties had made unauthorized orders, but they didn't extract the bills from Lacy. According to the translated statement, the staff first checked with the customers and charged only for items they actually consumed. “Of course, we don’t charge customers anything for such items,” the restaurant said.

“Initially, we couldn’t tell that it was a prank order, and we cooked some items, but we discarded some items without offering them because the customer confirmed that they hadn’t ordered them,” the restaurant explained. Meanwhile, Lacy has allegedly reached out to the restaurant to "make things right," per IBT. But the conflicting accounts of the story have left people puzzled as to whether he actually paid $12,000.

Rising threat of phishing scams

Dubbed “quishing,” QR code scams have grown exponentially in the last five years, precisely 14-fold, per the BBC. Over 102 million Americans will scan QR codes in 2026, and the global QR Code market is expected to reach $33.14 billion by 2030, which further adds to the possibility of scams, per WAVE. In restaurants particularly, nearly 82% of diners prefer to scan menus via QR codes rather than physical menus, per Barkoder, which increases the frequency of mistaken table scans.

The numbers seem grimmer when looking at the statistics shared by TableQR. According to TableQR, nearly 75% to 85% of the restaurants use QR code systems for scanning menus and payments. But the scam Lacy experienced seems to be one-of-a-kind, given the hefty amount he had to shell out. 

Viewers responded with mixed reactions. @nastyayasiqxa commented, “Was it a very expensive restaurant? 12 grand is a lot for just food for 2 people. And the staff didn't have 2nd thoughts; they can confirm from the customers.” @hopeinseptember said, “Maybe it’s ok to not stream everything, so stuff like this won’t happen.” @zerosumninja said, "The restaurant didn't find it strange that 2 people started ordering a s**t ton of food and never bothered to verify."

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