Automatic Card Skimmer Scanner/Reporter

Inspired by the Sparkfun gas pump skimmer app, but frustrated with the need to manually run the app whenever I pull into a gas station, I wanted to create a stand alone skimmer detector that is cheap to deploy and reports to a publicly visible location.

First things first, I needed a skimmer to test against, since I wasn't crazy about ordering a functional skimmer and getting myself on a watch list I decided it would be easy enough to simulate a skimmer with an Arduino UNO and an HC-05 bluetooth module I had sitting around. I lucked out and the HC-05 I have is 5v tolerant, so after connecting vcc to 5v, gnd to gnd, tx to d0, and rx to d1 I loaded the following sketch on the uno and like magic I had a virtual skimmer. At least a one capable of fooling the gas pump skimmer app.

int state = 0;
 
void setup() { 
 // initialize serial interface and give a small delay to let the system settle
 Serial.begin(9600);  
 delay(50); 
} 
 
void loop() { 
 // if something is sitting in the serial input queue
 if (Serial.available() > 0) { 
   // grab value from the queue
   state = Serial.read(); 
 } 
 // mimic a skimmer by replying to a 'P' with an 'M'
 if( state == 'P' ) { 
   Serial.print('M'); 
 } 
} 

I initially considered using a Raspberry Pi Zero W, but decided that the C.H.I.P., with it's built in battery manager and tools, would be a more stable device for running in a car.

After doing a quick OS update+factory reset on the CHIP, I attached my battery and started setting up the environment. The basic steps needed to prepare the CHIP for use with the nova are:

• Change default passwords

• Connect to local network via wifi, for easier managment

• Remove ModemManager as it interferes with the hologram.io tools

sudo apt-get remove modemmanager 

• Install hologram.io tools/sdk

• Plug in the Nova and test