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Credit card skimmers are becoming all too common. It’s in the news everyday where another device was found. There seems to be no way to truly overcome these as our nation has become infested with them. That is until now. Cyber security expert Patrick Traynor and two graduate students at the University of Florida believe that they have come up with an elixir to this plague and have called their gadget the Skim Reaper.
The Skim Reaper is ultra thin and can slide into a card slot easily. In there it can detect if the machine has been tampered with by detecting if an extra read head is present as there would be with an overlay or deep insert skimmer, the two most common types. Only one read head (the legitimate one) should be installed and if a second has been installed it is a skimmer. It is quick and easy to use.
As criminals become more and more sophisticated and make their devices look like they belong it is getting harder and harder to spot these devices. Considering as well that some can be installed in a matter of minutes or even seconds it makes detection even harder. There are some tricks to try to spot a skimmer but they do not always work.
The device was given to the NYPD to test in February. The NYPD has four dedicated detectives who only work on skimming cases and with tens of thousands of ATMS, terminals and gas pumps in the city they are overloaded with work. The Skim Reaper did not take long to show its value when it detected a skimmer in Brooklyn and it is hoped that this device can make testing more efficient and can even be placed in the hands of regular officers.
The Skim Reaper has the thickness of a credit card but is elongated and wired to a box that is about the size of an iPhone. A display shows the user if a skimmer is detected or not. Right now they cost about $50 to make but the price will come down over time to help take a bite out of a billion dollar a year crime. The device right now is a prototype but a working model for the public is hoped to be ready next year.
Credit card skimming, meet your worst nightmare.
