Bluetooth skimmer detection
Know before you swipe.
Detect credit card skimmers at pumps, ATMs, and terminals — for people who pay and for the merchants who run them.
Protect yourself
Free on iOS & Android — Apple CarPlay & Android Auto.
Scan before you swipe · Drive detection · Community safety map.
See what's been found near you →Protect your terminals
From $85/location/month · 14-day free trial · No setup fee.
Check readers for skimmers, keep a simple logbook, and train your staff.
Start 14-day trialSelf-serve · under 5 minutes · nothing charged for 14 days
See business pricing & features → Team app now on Google Play →Includes inspection logbook, immutable audit trail & training in 22 languages.
Why this exists
Skimmers are visually identical to real hardware.
Skimmers are illegal devices criminals attach to gas pumps, ATMs, and checkout terminals — and to the readers behind a bar, on a restaurant table, at a stadium concession, or on a festival vendor's cart. They install in under 30 seconds and look identical to the real thing.
2025 U.S. figures, according to FICO — third-party industry data, not SkimGuard detections.
A skimmer only works for as long as nobody looks closely — and that is exactly what paying while distracted buys it. In a crowd, in a rush, mid-conversation, often after dark, frequently at a terminal that was rolled out for the night and will be gone tomorrow. Nobody inspects a card reader when they're four people deep at the bar — and that inattention is exactly what a compromised reader is counting on. New to skimming? Our plain-English guides explain how it happens and how to check a reader.
Who can see it
Retailers have the visibility — the devices appear on their property — but little incentive to detect or disclose. The reputation risk outweighs a loss they don't directly bear.
Who pays for it
Banks absorb the losses. Insurers ultimately cover them. Consumers eat the fraud and the hassle. The parties with the exposure have no operational visibility into where skimmers actually are.
The industry has spent decades trying to protect card data after it's stolen. Nobody is detecting the theft itself. We close that gap.
How it works
Detect. Report. Protect.
Today's skimmers are wireless — they beam stolen card data over Bluetooth so criminals never have to return to the scene. SkimGuard scans for those signals and flags the ones that match known skimmer patterns, so you can check a reader before you pay. It detects skimmers that transmit — it can't see a purely mechanical or non-transmitting one, so a clear result is a strong signal, not a guarantee. Every detection makes the network stronger for everyone nearby.
Detect
The consumer app
Free on iOS and Android, with skimmer detection on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Scan wherever you're about to pay — the pump, the ATM, the checkout lane, the bar, the concession stand — and get warned before you swipe.
Free forever
Report
The public safety map
Detections at public places publish to a live community map, so drivers and shoppers can steer clear of compromised locations — and businesses can act before harm spreads.
Public & free
Protect
For businesses & partners
Retailers, ATM operators, card networks, and insurers can work with SkimGuard to get early warning, cut losses, and keep customers swiping with confidence.
Get in touch
In the car
Apple CarPlay & Android Auto.
Most skimming happens on the road — at the pump and the drive-up ATM. SkimGuard puts card-skimmer safety on the dashboard so a driver never has to pick up a phone. The in-car screens are display and lookup surfaces: your phone does the Bluetooth scanning, and the car reads the resulting safety ratings from SkimGuard's network.
Heads-up on the road ahead
While you drive, SkimGuard checks the road ahead — up to about 20 km, within a narrow corridor along your route — and flags places with recent suspicious activity. It's a look-ahead, not a whole-trip clearance: it tells you what's coming up, not that an entire drive is clear.
A quick check when you stop
Pull up to a pump or an ATM and pause, and the car surface does a lightweight nearby lookup so you can see a location's recent safety status before you tap your card.
A nudge after you park
No CarPlay or Android Auto in your vehicle? After you park, SkimGuard can send a notification with the nearby status, so the safety check still reaches you.
For merchants · Keep your card readers safe
Spot a tampered card reader — and keep the proof you checked.
For businesses, SkimGuard watches your card readers for skimmers — a quick handheld check by your staff, or always-on monitoring through the Wi-Fi you already run. It also keeps a simple logbook of every check, so when someone asks how you protect your readers, you can show them. That’s the record PCI rules ask for — Requirement 9.5 for checking readers, and 10.2 and 10.3 for keeping the record — and it exports in one tap. Included free in both business plans.
9.5.1.x
Inspection logbook
A list of every card reader you run (spares too), your tamper checks with photos, how often you decide to check, and who’s been trained — all in one place.
Requirement 9.5
10.2 / 10.3
A record that can’t be changed
Every check is saved with who did it, what they found, and when — and it can’t be edited or deleted later. That’s exactly the kind of record an assessor asks to see, and you can export it any time.
Audit-ready
No add-on
Included, not extra
The logbook, the reader list, reminders, and one-tap export all come with both plans — no add-on, no per-reader fee. It helps you document and meet these PCI rules; it isn’t a PCI certification on its own.
Both tiers
Requirement 9.5.1.3 · Staff training
The staff training your assessor asks for — built in, in 22 languages.
Every business also gets built-in staff training. Your team takes short lessons right in the app — in 22 languages, or load your own — and it keeps track of who’s trained, who’s due, and how each location is doing. When your assessor asks, export a clean record in a tap. It helps you show you’ve met PCI’s training rule (9.5.1.3) — it isn’t a PCI certification on its own. Most owners pay for a separate service to do this; here it’s free, and for a lot of them that alone covers the cost of SkimGuard.
Live now
See what's been found near you.
The SkimGuard community safety map shows recent skimmer detections reported by users across the country. Check before you fill up, before you cash out, or before a night out.
Get in touch
Let's talk.
Business, press, partnership, or general inquiry — tell us a bit about you and we'll follow up.