diff --git a/scripts/taler-monitoring/check_qr_payloads.py b/scripts/taler-monitoring/check_qr_payloads.py
index 7cd109d..74efde4 100755
--- a/scripts/taler-monitoring/check_qr_payloads.py
+++ b/scripts/taler-monitoring/check_qr_payloads.py
@@ -49,10 +49,13 @@ def looks_like_real_uri(uri: str) -> bool:
         return False
     if re.match(r"^taler://pay/?$", uri, re.I):
         return False
-    # trailing junk from HTML/JS
-    if uri.endswith((")", "(", "\\", "^", "*", "+", "?")):
+    # trailing junk / JS regex fragments (allow ? & = in query strings)
+    if uri.endswith((")", "(", "\\", "^", "*")):
         return False
-    if re.search(r"[\\^$*+?]", uri):
+    if re.search(r"[\\^$*]", uri):
+        return False
+    # lone incomplete `taler://…?` without path
+    if re.match(r"^taler://[^/]+$", uri, re.I):
         return False
     return True