Americans lost $330 million to Bitcoin ATM scams last year, FBI says

[midian182]

In a nutshell: Cryptocurrency popularity continues to increase, and that means we're seeing more crypto-related crimes. The FBI has revealed that last year, Americans were tricked out of $333 million via Bitcoin ATM scams – with older victims the prime target.

The US now has more than 45,000 Bitcoin ATMs where people can insert cash (or scan a crypto wallet QR code) to buy Bitcoin and have it sent to a wallet. Some machines also let you sell Bitcoin and receive cash in return.

The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency, and the difficulty of recovering it once sent, have long made it attractive to criminals. Bitcoin ATM scams are no different.

These types of scams first passed $100 million in 2023 when people lost a total of $114 million. That rose to around $250 million in 2024. From January through November 2025, that figure was $333.5 million, according to the FBI. The agency warned that this "clear and constant rise" is "not slowing down."

Authorities are pushing back against crypto ATM providers. In September, the Washington, D.C., attorney general's office sued Athena Bitcoin, one of the largest providers in the country, accusing it of "pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed fees on the backs of scam victims."

The suit also claimed that 93% of the transactions on Athena's devices in the district are the product of outright fraud, and that the median age of victims was 71 years.

Athena told ABC News that it maintains strong safeguards against fraud, including transparent instructions, prominent warnings and consumer education.

"Just as a bank isn't held responsible if someone willingly sends funds to someone else, Athena does not control users' decisions," the company said in a statement.

Consumer advocates argue that those safeguards often fail in real-world scenarios, especially when victims are being manipulated in real time. Many scams involve callers posing as government officials, tech support agents, or even family members in distress, pressuring victims to act quickly and in secret.

Lawmakers in several states are now considering tighter regulations, including transaction caps, mandatory cooling-off periods, and clearer on-screen fraud warnings. Some proposals would also require operators to refund victims in certain cases, shifting more responsibility onto the companies profiting from the machines.

Until those measures are widely adopted, experts say education remains the most effective defense. The FBI continues to emphasize that no legitimate business, government agency, or law enforcement body will ever request payment via cryptocurrency – and anyone who says otherwise is almost certainly running a scam.

Image credit: General Bytes

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Americans lost $330 million to Bitcoin ATM scams last year, FBI says

 

[Win7User]

A, friend of mine built me my first computer. It, was an Acer mid-tower. I, think the hard drive was 20mb in size. Dial up and all that too. But, he told me, if you want to keep it, don't put it on a computer, because you'll at some point you'll LOSE IT! Write it down, back it up, etc... I'll, will say for the smart *** that will reply, you can't write down bitcoin. Which, is true enough. But, no one is forcing you to purchase bitcoin in the first place. Sometimes, common sense goes a long, long way...

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

A, friend of mine built me my first computer. It, was an Acer mid-tower. I, think the hard drive was 20mb in size. Dial up and all that too. But, he told me, if you want to keep it, don't put it on a computer, because you'll at some point you'll LOSE IT! Write it down, back it up, etc... I'll, will say for the smart *** that will reply, you can't write down bitcoin. Which, is true enough. But, no one is forcing you to purchase bitcoin in the first place. Sometimes, common sense goes a long, long way...

I would like to point out that you CAN write down bitcoin, that is write down your wallet's private key. Writing you key down and keeping it in a locked box is one of the safer ways to store it. If you know your private key you can access your wallet anywhere with internet. That is one of bitcoins advantages; as long as you know the key you can travel across the world and access your funds, and the only way people take it from you is to trick you (like these scams) or physical violence.

That said you are right that people need more common sense - the vast majority of these scams have been around for literally decades at this point. I can understand people falling for these in the early days of the internet, but come on now, if you haven't heard news stories about these sorts of scams at this point you have to be purposefully keeping yourself ignorant. I suppose maybe TV stations / other media that has an older audience should maybe be encouraged to run more programs explaining how these scams work.

 

[James321]

They should just BAN crypto. The currency of choice for terrorist and others doing Illegal actions.

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

They should just BAN crypto. The currency of choice for terrorist and others doing Illegal actions.

Who is "They"? Way too many politicians benefit from crypto these days for bans to be a viable option these days in many jurisdictions. And places that have banned/restricted crypto currencies have had a devil of time actually enforcing those laws; even the People's Republic of China attempts to restrict crypto usage have remained largely ineffective. And in the US you run into 1st amendment issues; similar to government efforts to restrict encryption software exports; banning math you can write on T-shirt is a hard sell to the US courts.

 

[Kashim]

Americans lost $330 million to the Bitcoin nonsense? Let me go get the world's smallest violin and play it for them.

 

[wiyosaya]

In the immortal words of Forrest Gump - Stupid is as Stupid does.

 

[AnilD]

The 93% fraud stat is absolutely brutal. At that point it’s not a financial service, it’s basically a payphone for criminals with extra steps and a convenience fee.

 

[Liljonny11]

They should just BAN crypto. The currency of choice for terrorist and others doing Illegal actions.

The entire point behind cryptocurrency is creating a full decentralized currency backed by public investment and public mining. You really can't ban it because you would have to ban it in every country and then continue to enforce it in every single country and when one cryptocurrency goes down the other comes in it's place. You'd have about the same luck as banning illegal streaming of TV shows and movies.
The reason the currency of choice for crime is cryptocurrency is because it's fully anonymous and cannot be tracked or frozen by any government authority. This is why money laundering is a thing and also why scarface was taken down by the IRS. Minus fresh mints, cash is the same, so you're argument has the same validity as wanting to ban cash.