The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly issuing a warning about crypto ATM fraud, noting that victims are losing thousands of dollars to this scheme.
According to a new report from NBC News, the regulatory body is warning consumers that bad actors are stealing money through Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs, or machines that instantly convert cash into major crypto assets based on market capitalization.
FTC data shows that $65 million was stolen in the first half of the year by scammers using Bitcoin ATMs. Furthermore, it shows that between 2020 and 2023, the amount of money siphoned off from these types of scams increased by as much as tenfold to over $110 million.
The FTC says victims lose an average of $10,000 to cryptocurrency ATM scams.
According to the report, the fraudsters pose as bank tellers, government employees or technical support agents to try to get victims to deposit money into the ATMs.
In one case, a woman was scammed after scammers told her her Social Security number had been frozen. They told her that to fix the problem, she had to withdraw cash and deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM, with the promise that the money would appear back in her bank account the next day.
Says senior data researcher at the FTC Emma Fletcher:
“If your heart is racing that something is seriously wrong, it could very well be that while you are trying to protect yourself from fraud, you are actually being scammed.”
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