The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report about increasing fraud at Bitcoin ATMs. These ATMs allow people to turn their cash into crypto, but they’ve become a tool for scammers to perpetrate fraud — since 2020, the FTC says fraud at Bitcoin ATMs has ballooned nearly tenfold, and just in the first half of 2024, consumers have lost over $66 million to these scams.
Scammers use tactics like fake phone calls, messages, and security alerts to convince people that they’re in danger, and that they should deposit cash into a Bitcoin ATM to protect it. Then, the scammer may share a QR code to scan at the Bitcoin ATM, which deposits the cash into the scammer’s wallet.
