Call it a diabolical new twist on an old scam: ATM fraudsters are turning to bitcoin.
Data the Federal Trade Commission provided to NBC News show the amount of money consumers have reported losing to scams involving Bitcoin ATMS rose nearly tenfold since 2020, topping $110 million in 2023.
And older people are getting roped in the most. The agency said consumers over age 60 were more than three times as likely as younger adults to say they were duped out of cash in these schemes.
“Scammers are using these machines as a way to take money from people more than we’ve seen in the past,” Emma Fletcher, a senior data researcher at the FTC, told NBC News.
Bitcoin ATMs look like traditional ATMs and operate similarly, in that they can be used for both deposits and withdrawals, but the transactions involve cryptocurrencies.
The machines are banned in some countries, including the U.K. and Singapore, but they’re legal in the U.S. According to one estimate, there are nearly 32,000 nationwide today, up from just over 4,000 at the start of 2020. The kiosks can now be found in high-traffic locations like convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets — something that has helped fuel the fraud uptick, federal authorities say.
In many of the incidents the FTC identified, fraudsters contact a victim — or the victim inadvertently connects with them — claiming to be a customer service representative flagging an attempted identify theft or an account breach.
They eventually text their targets a square-shaped QR code — like the ones diners frequently use to pull up restaurant menus — connected to a digital wallet. The victim is typically directed to scan the code and deposit cash into the Bitcoin ATM, which converts it into bitcoin that immediately gets transferred to the scammer — all while the victim thinks they’re protecting their assets.
Scammers have a number of ways to concoct a successful ruse. There are sometimes multiple fraudsters in on a given heist pretending to be employees of a government agency or business, including major tech firms like Microsoft or Apple, according to the FTC.
A scam often begins when bad actors get their hands on a victim’s phone number — many of which are increasingly available on the “dark web,” the part of the internet that typical browsers and search engines can’t reach, like certain chatrooms, and that has helped enable illegal activity.
Fraudsters will often contact victims claiming to flag an urgent problem with an account, sometimes through a message that looks like a legitimate alert, like a pop-up notification.
“They’re trying to create a situation that is really hard to ignore,” Fletcher said. “From there, people are convinced that the problem is actually extremely serious.”
Indiana resident Marilyn LoCascio, 76, says she lost $31,500 to a fraud group that included people posing as an Apple tech support specialist, a bank representative and two government officials. It began when she received what looked like a security alert on her iPad, which led her to a fraudster who informed her she’d been hacked, with a payment to an online porn website from her account made in her name.
“I just called the number without thinking. … It would be anything other than Apple,” LoCascio said. “A gentlemen answered the phone who was supposedly a tech, and he even gave me a case ID, and then it just sort of mushroomed from there.”
As her interactions with the scammers dragged on, LoCascio sensed something was wrong. But after being brought into a conference call with someone posing as a U.S. Treasury official, she was persuaded nothing was amiss. She added that she’d never even heard of Bitcoin, but the apparent urgency of the situation made it seem prudent to follow instructions to protect herself.
Scams involving cryptocurrency have surged alongside the price of Bitcoin, which today is worth about $60,000, roughly double its value a year ago. But Fletcher said that while many of such frauds, like shady investment schemes, are more likely to victimize younger people, roughly $2 out of every $3 lost in a scam involving a bitcoin ATM belonged to someone near or over retirement age.
“These Bitcoin ATMs seem to have opened up sort of a gateway for scammers who are after cryptocurrency to target older adults,” she said.
Bitcoin ATM operators say they have guardrails to fend off fraud and illicit activity.
“We provide numerous scam warnings at our machines in nearly every stage of a consumer transaction to prevent individuals from falling victim to frauds and scams,” Scott Buchanan, the chief operating officer of Bitcoin Depot, said in a statement.
The company, which describes itself as the largest bitcoin ATM provider, said its operations are heavily regulated and involve extensive compliance and consumer protection policies. “We also have live customer support over email, chat, text and phone calls and encourage consumers concerned about a potential scam to contact our customer support team prior to transacting,” Buchanan said.
Bitcoin Depot has not been charged with any crime, though it is currently the subject of at least one lawsuit from a user who alleges she was victimized by a fraudster at one of its kiosks. The company has denied responsibility.
“Unfortunately, like all financial institutions, we cannot prevent every instance of fraud that occurs using our services,” Buchanan said.
Fletcher said some people have caught on to the scam fast enough to alert the ATM operator and eventually recover their money, but such instances are rare. The best move, she said, is to take a breath and think twice before sending money through a Bitcoin kiosk at anyone’s behest.
“It’s natural for people to want to respond rapidly to such a message, but because these scams are so prevalent, it’s really important that people slow down and check it out,” Fletcher said.
