It may soon be a lot easier to spot skimming devices on ATMs, gas pumps or other payment terminals, thanks to a new tool developed by researchers at the University of Florida.

Dubbed “the Skim Reaper,” the tool has a plastic card that the user swipes or dips at an ATM, gas pump or other card-reading machine. It instantly tells the user whether there's more than one contraption inside the machine that is reading the card's data, indicating the presence of a skimmer.

“Payment card fraud results in billions of dollars in losses annually. Adversaries increasingly acquire card data using skimmers, which are attached to legitimate payment devices including point of sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs. Detecting such devices can be difficult, and while many experts offer advice in doing so, there exists no large-scale characterization of skimmer technology to support such defenses,” the University of Florida said on a webpage dedicated to the tool.

The Skim Reaper is still in the prototype phase, but the university said it has built five for the New York Police Department, which has deployed them in all five boroughs for testing. The tool won't be just for cops if all goes according to plan.

“Preliminary UF tests show the device is able to detect skimmers with high reliability. Consumers may be able to get their hands on one in six to nine months, and it may be small enough to fit in your wallet,” the university said.

That could be great news for credit unions, consumers and other financial institutions because skimmers will likely be a problem for at least the next few years, despite the advent of EMV chip cards. Although many merchants have begun accepting chip cards due to a liability shift that makes them responsible for certain types of card fraud, many retailers, ATMs and gas pumps still do not use chip readers. That is one reason most chip cards still have magnetic stripes, which hold the tantalizing data skimmers are after.

“While more-secure chip cards are becoming more common, their universal use, especially in ATMs and gas pumps, is likely years away,” said University of Florida Associate Professor Patrick Traynor, who is also co-director of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research and a Skim Reaper co-developer. “That means those old-fashioned swipe cards with the magnetic strips on the back will be around for the foreseeable future — along with their vulnerabilities.”

The invention might even buy ATM operators and gas retailers a little more time to upgrade their terminals.

“Vendors and law enforcement need better tools to protect this payment channel,” said Nolen Scaife, a doctoral researcher who helped develop the Skim Reaper. “That's precisely what this research has set out to accomplish, and we believe that this tool will go a long way in the fight against card skimmers while allowing payment terminal operators to continue leveraging their existing equipment.”

Traynor said the team is seeking more law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, gas stations and payments processors for an expanded pilot study, as well as help scaling the manufacturing and deployment.

Instant Insights /

'Skim Reaper' Could Bring Kiss of Death to Skimmers

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