Coin, Swyp Competitor ScramCard Hones In On Fraud Mitigation

The movement toward enhanced security in cards continues with the debut of a new universal card from ScramCard, the FinTech startup said Friday (Dec. 4).

The company said its universal card allows users to upload multiple debit and credit cards onto a single card. Yet, the company also told PYMNTS that the solution differs from other universal cards and technologies offered by Swyp and Coin in that it has a system in place that helps to staunch fraud risk. ScramCard said that each transaction needs a PIN in order for access to the EMV chip, contactless chip or magnetic stripe to be initiated. This promotes safety across both in-store and remote payments, according to the company.

That additional layer of security helps guard against payment card fraud, said the company, and against an illicit activity backdrop that will see such fraud double to as much as $36 billion annually by 2020.

Such security measures via PIN per transaction, the company said, help mitigate loss as banks try to encourage additional consumer spend, while guarding against mounting losses simply for the sake of convenience. Card security is of increasing importance, posited the company, as the vehicle remains the preferred method of payment, right after cash, and still remains among the more secure ways to pay for purchases across channels. And, at present, biometrics and other solutions, the company said, remain too expensive (and are too relatively untested) to implement.

The company got an unquantified “seven-figure investment” from Stewart Milne, chairman of Aberdeen FC and the Stewart Milne Group, in November. The funding will be used to expand in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. In addition, the firm has backing from payments players that include MasterCard, Gemalto and Alcineo, ScramCard has said in past months.