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.
Tune in to “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT tonight for more.
“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.