Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS), a leading worldwide developer of wireless security and cybersecurity solutions announces a new product in the fight against hidden card skimmers typically found in retail businesses, convenience stores and travel centers.

Skim Swipe™ was developed by BVS engineers in an effort to offer law enforcement, retail owners, managers and consumers a quick and easy way to immediately detect credit and debit card skimmers hidden inside retail POS (Point-Of-Sale) payment terminals and card swipers.

According to FICO, card skimming in the U.S. grew by 700% in the first half of 2022 and there has been a 96% jump in compromised debit cards in 2023. This costs consumers more than $1 billion every year according to the FBI. Organized criminals have created an array of custom, 3D-printed overlays that look indistinguishable from legitimate credit and debit card readers. These overlays containing a card skimmer can be slipped overtop most readers in just seconds making them difficult to detect. Once the skimmer has captured enough card data, the bogus overlays can be retrieved just as fast as they were deployed allowing cyber criminals to then begin creating cloned cards and selling valuable consumer data to be used for identity theft across the Dark Web.

“We have begun to tighten the screws on cyber criminals who rely on card skimming to rip off consumers and business owners,” says Scott N. Schober, Cybersecurity expert, top-selling author and CEO or Berkeley Varitronics Systems, Inc. He continues, “We now offer instant skimmer detection for both deep-insert and swiping magnetic stripe card readers as well powerful bluetooth skimmer detection from a distance.”

Skim Swipe™ works by simply swiping it through any card reader found in convenience stores, retail and travel centers as well as some ATMs, gas pumps and other POS (Point-Of-Sale) payment terminals and kiosks. A visible and audible alert immediately triggers if a skimmer is detected making operation of the device simple and fast enough for anyone including retail workers, owners, managers and fraud prevention agents.

Previous efforts by law enforcement and retail groups to prevent card skimmer proliferation have proven to be expensive and resource intensive. The mobile card reader market is estimated to be worth over $15 billion in the U.S. but has been slow to adopt newer, more secure EMV and contactless payment methods. Many card readers default to the old-fashioned magnetic stripe method when the newer Chip-and-PIN or contactless payment methods fails or is not present. Unfortunately, magnetic stripes are the most vulnerable which is why criminals continue to primarily target this data storage method by using magnetic stripe skimmers.

BVS’ previous skimmer detection solution, Skim Scan™ has sold many hundreds of units to banks, credit unions, service stations and travel centers across the country. BVS has also sold hundreds of BlueSleuth™ units which is the only Bluetooth card skimmer detector featuring a super-sensitive direction finding antenna system to pinpoint Bluetooth card skimmers hidden deep inside gas pumps from up to 75 feet away. 

Skim Swipe™ requires no modifications or hardware installations to any existing card reader. The handheld unit ships ready to go with a spare coin cell battery lasting up to 6 months with heavy use. Skim Swipe™ sells direct from www.bvsystems.com and is also available now on Amazon for $430 with quantity discounts for customers looking to secure multiple retail locations from card skimmers.