Here’s an alarming statistic: card skimming in the U.S. increased by 368% in 2022 compared to 2021, according to a report published by FICO. Further, credit card skimming costs financial institutions and consumers more than $1 billion annually, according to FBI estimates.
With the volume of skimming points of compromise continuing to increase, it’s no surprise both merchants and consumers are searching for solutions. What can you do?
While enabling contactless, tap-to-pay options in your stores is one way to empower many consumers to protect themselves from card skimmers, the truth is that not all shoppers will use tap-to-pay every time.
The good news is we have a solution to help you protect shoppers in those cases, too. But first, let’s take a look at what card skimming devices are and how they work.
What is Credit Card Skimming?
Card skimming is when criminals install covert devices on point-of-sale terminals, ATMs, or gas pump card readers to capture the card data and/or cardholders’ sensitive information, such as PIN numbers.
What Does a Credit Card Skimmer Look Like?
There are many different types of credit card skimmers, but the most common ones replicate the look and feel of the payment terminal to make them difficult to detect. They are often a thin, plastic overlay that is installed over the face, keypad, and/or card reader of the payment terminal.
How Do Card Skimming Devices Work?
First, thieves sneak into the store and quickly install a fake cover with a card skimming device on a payment terminal. Once installed, transactions go through as normal, but the skimmer also steals and stores shoppers’ card information.
The criminals then either sell that data or use it themselves to access and steal from victims’ accounts.
Our Solution to Prevent Card Skimming
So, how can merchants prevent credit card skimming devices from being applied to their payment terminals? There have been options developed over the years, but many times those solutions were cumbersome, expensive, and required an onsite visit to install. Level 10 has developed a non-traditional, simple, more affordable solution.
Our solution consists of a small piece of foam branded with your logo that is affixed to your payment terminals with a super strong adhesive. These are designed to be easy to install so your store managers can attach them themselves, saving you a technician visit and drastically reducing the cost to deploy. However, even though they are simple to attach, they can’t be easily removed. We have found that this creates enough of a barrier to prevent fraudsters from being able to put a skimming device over the payment terminal as they won’t be able to install it quickly.
We currently have solutions available for the following payment terminals and can create a custom solution for most other popular payment terminals as needed:
- Verifone MX Series (915 and 925)
- Verifone M400
- Ingenico Lane Series (3000, 5000, 7000)
With credit card skimmers on the rise, it’s important to keep your customers’ secure data safe at the payment terminal. Our quick, easy solution can help you prevent a skimming device from being installed on your payment terminals, giving you and your customers peace of mind.
Contact us to learn more information or request a sample of our card skimming prevention solution.
