Crypto ATM Scams Surge in December 2025 as Police, States and Seniors Fight Back

From Ohio convenience stores to Las Vegas gas stations and small-town banks in Iowa, a new kind of “cash-out” scam is surging in the United States — and it runs through cryptocurrency ATMs.

In early December 2025, a string of fresh police warnings, state crackdowns and heartbreaking victim stories have pushed crypto ATM fraud back into the spotlight, underscoring how quickly criminals have turned niche machines into one of their favorite tools.

Key points

Americans lost nearly $250 million to scams involving Bitcoin ATMs in 2024, more than double 2023, according to the FBI. ^[1]
A recent analysis cited by regulators estimates that crypto ATM fraud in the first half of 2025 alone has already hit roughly $240 million. ^[2]
In just one Missouri county, 156 victims lost $3 million to Bitcoin ATM scams in the last two years. ^[3]
New alerts and rules this month are coming from Nevada, Virginia, Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan and others, while local police in places like Westlake, Ohio are literally pulling people away from the machines. ^[4]
Crypto ATM operators are facing lawsuits and enforcement actions from Washington, D.C. to Iowa and Washington state over allegations they profit from fraud or mishandle customer funds. ^[5]

A 71‑year‑old at the machine: Westlake, Ohio’s near‑miss — and a loss

In Westlake, a Cleveland suburb, police say they recently walked into a convenience store and found a 71‑year‑old woman feeding stacks of cash — nearly $5,500 — into a crypto ATM on Center Ridge Road. Store clerks had already tried to stop her, convinced she was being scammed. When she refused to listen, they called police. ^[6]

Captain Jerry Vogel told local station News 5 Cleveland that the department has been posting warning signs on every crypto ATM in the city. “Education is the key,” he said, adding that the scams are so believable that victims fall for them regardless of their background or education level. ^[7]

In this case, officers managed to talk the woman down and may be able to recover at least some of her money. But a similar Westlake case had a darker ending.

Body‑camera footage highlighted in a CNN investigation shows an officer pleading with another woman who is mid‑transaction at a Bitcoin kiosk, telling her the caller on the phone is a scammer. She insists the call is legitimate and continues anyway. ^[8]

That incident, also covered by local station Fox 8 and now recirculating under the headline “When a Scam Sounds Too Real: Victim Ignores Cops and Loses Thousands at Crypto ATM,” ended with the elderly victim losing several thousand dollars despite warnings from both police and store staff. ^[9]

The Westlake cases have become emblematic of the new era of crypto ATM fraud: scams so convincing that even a uniformed officer standing next to the machine isn’t always enough to break the spell.

How a typical crypto ATM scam works

While scripts vary, the basic template is remarkably consistent across recent alerts from law enforcement and regulators:

The first contact
- Victims receive a phone call, text, email, chat message or pop‑up, often claiming to be from a bank, tech support, the IRS, local police or a utility company. ^[10]
- In Clay County, Missouri, for example, callers posed as sheriff’s deputies and claimed the target had missed jury duty and faced arrest unless they paid “fees” immediately. ^[11]
Creating panic and urgency
- The scammer insists money is at immediate risk, that an arrest warrant exists, or that a loved one is in danger.
- Victims are told not to speak to anyone, especially bank staff or police, and to follow instructions exactly. ^[12]
The walk to the ATM
- The caller stays on the line while the victim withdraws cash from a bank and travels to a Bitcoin or cryptocurrency ATM — often in a gas station or convenience store. ^[13]
- In just one week in Idaho, a store employee unplugged a crypto ATM and called police, stopping two elderly victims from losing more than $30,000 combined, according to the state’s attorney general. ^[14]
Scanning the scammer’s wallet
- At the machine, the scammer directs the victim to type in a wallet address or scan a QR code that routes funds to the criminal, not to the victim’s own account. ^[15]
Irreversible loss
- Once cash is converted to cryptocurrency and sent, recovery is rare. Funds often disappear into overseas exchanges or wallets beyond U.S. jurisdiction, investigators say. ^[16]

Crypto ATMs are attractive to criminals because they combine cash, speed, global reach and a perception of anonymity. ABC News reports that Americans lost nearly $250 million to scams using Bitcoin ATMs in 2024, more than double the previous year, and AARP says criminals now prefer crypto over gift cards or wire transfers. ^[17]

December 2025: A wave of new warnings

Nevada: Las Vegas hot spot draws statewide alarm

This month, Nevada’s Secretary of State issued a public advisory after a spike in reports of scammers steering victims to Bitcoin ATMs, particularly around Las Vegas. ^[18]

Local broadcaster KSNV notes that Federal Trade Commission data shows more than $110 million in consumer losses to these scams in 2023, with many of the affected ATMs located in Las Vegas. Officials are urging residents to treat any demand for payment via crypto kiosk as a red flag and to be aware of new protections under state legislation such as Senate Bill 76, which is designed to help investment fraud victims. ^[19]

Virginia: Fredericksburg and Adult Protective Services partner up

On December 3, the Fredericksburg Police Department and Adult Protective Services issued a joint news release warning seniors about gift card and crypto ATM scams. The release describes criminals who build emotional or romantic relationships with older adults, then stay on the phone while victims withdraw cash and deposit it into a Bitcoin or crypto ATM. ^[20]

Police stress that the presence of crypto ATMs in the city makes these scams a local risk, and urge residents to never share gift card numbers or codes, resist urgent payment demands and contact family or law enforcement before acting. ^[21]

Iowa: State banking regulators call out crypto ATMs

In an op‑ed published December 4, the Iowa Department of Insurance and Financial Services warns that crypto ATMs are playing a bigger role in scams than ever, citing Federal Trade Commission data showing consumers now report over $100 million a year in losses. ^[22]

The department explains that scammers typically pose as government officials or tech support, demand that Iowans withdraw cash and use a crypto ATM, and then direct them to enter the scammer’s wallet address or scan a QR code. Once the cryptocurrency is sent, “they quickly move it, making it virtually impossible to recover,” the agency writes. ^[23]

Iowa now requires crypto ATM operators to provide refunds under specific conditions when users are fraudulently induced into a transaction, as long as victims report the fraud within 90 days and provide evidence such as a police report or sworn statement. ^[24]

Nebraska: Lincoln’s warning stickers and state refund law

In Lincoln, Nebraska, police say residents lost more than $11 million to scammers in the first 11 months of 2025 alone, much of it via cryptocurrency and financial fraud. ^[25]

In October, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird proposed an ordinance requiring warning signs on every crypto ATM in the city. The Lincoln City Council unanimously passed the measure in November, and by December police were working with AARP Nebraska volunteers to place stickers on machines and educate residents. ^[26]

Nebraska also enacted the Controllable Electronic Record Fraud Prevention Act, which includes consumer protections such as mandated refunds for eligible victims who were tricked into using a crypto ATM and meet certain reporting requirements. ^[27]

Michigan: Sterling Heights introduces local licensing for machines

On December 2, Sterling Heights, Michigan, introduced an ordinance to license and regulate “virtual currency machines,” including Bitcoin ATMs. City officials say that of roughly 27 such machines within city limits, police have investigated 23 fraud cases, with losses exceeding $542,000, most of them involving seniors. ^[28]

The proposal would require local licenses for both machine owners and host businesses, mandate ID checks, warning labels and receipts, set limits for first‑time customers, and empower the city to inspect machines and suspend licenses for violations. ^[29]

Clay County, Missouri: $3 million gone, virtually no suspects

Beyond the latest alerts, new data from Clay County, Missouri, shows how entrenched these scams have become.

A December 1 report from public radio station KCUR found that in the past two years 156 residents lost $3 million to Bitcoin ATM scams. Many victims were told over the phone they had missed jury duty and faced arrest unless they made immediate payments. ^[30]

Instead of buying gift cards or money orders, callers now direct people to Bitcoin kiosks — sometimes called BTMs — where they’re instructed to feed in thousands of dollars and send it to a wallet controlled by the scammer. ^[31]

“Scammers prefer to use these machines because the transactions are near instantaneous and very difficult to reverse or trace,” Clay County Prosecutor Zach Thompson told the station. Investigators there have yet to arrest anyone in connection with those 156 cases. ^[32]

A 2023 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, cited in the same story, concluded that many Bitcoin ATM operators do little to comply with anti‑money‑laundering rules, despite being classified as money services businesses. ^[33]

Are the machines themselves the problem? Operators under fire

Even as police race from store to store, a broader battle is playing out between regulators and the companies that run crypto ATMs.

D.C. vs. Athena Bitcoin

In September, Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued Athena Bitcoin, a major Bitcoin ATM operator, alleging it “financially exploited” residents by charging hidden fees and failing to protect scam victims. ^[34]

According to the complaint and subsequent coverage, the District alleges that in the first months Athena operated in D.C.:

93% of deposits at its machines were linked to scams
Nearly half of all deposits were flagged to Athena as fraud‑related
The median victim age was 71
The median loss per scam transaction was about $8,000, with one victim losing $98,000 across multiple visits ^[35]

Schwalb also alleges that Athena charged fees of up to 26% per transaction and enforced a strict “no refunds” policy, even when the company knew transactions were likely fraudulent. ^[36]

Athena has denied the allegations, telling outlets including ABC News and CBS that it provides clear warnings and education, and that it cannot control how customers choose to use their machines — likening its role to that of a bank facilitating wire transfers. ^[37]

Iowa, Maine and beyond: Bitcoin Depot and CoinFlip

Iowa’s attorney general has filed separate suits against Bitcoin Depot and CoinFlip, two of the country’s largest Bitcoin ATM operators, accusing them of being a “silent partner” to scammers by profiting from high fees on transactions that were overwhelmingly tied to fraud. ^[38]

Court filings cited by CNN and policy analysts claim that:

More than half of all money taken in by Bitcoin Depot machines in Iowa over several years came from scam transactions
CoinFlip’s top 20 users in the state were all scam victims ^[39]

Both companies dispute the allegations, arguing that the vast majority of their transactions are legitimate, that they put multiple scam warnings on their machines and, in CoinFlip’s case, that they refund transaction fees to confirmed fraud victims. ^[40]

A regulator in Maine went even further, denying Bitcoin Depot a money-transmitter license after concluding that its ATMs had caused too many consumers — especially seniors — to suffer losses, and that its machines lacked adequate safeguards. ^[41]

Washington state vs. Coinme

In Coinme’s home state of Washington, regulators took a different tack this month. On December 4, the state Department of Financial Institutions issued a temporary cease‑and‑desist order against the Seattle-based company, which operates one of the largest crypto cash networks in the U.S. ^[42]

Officials allege Coinme improperly counted more than $8 million in unredeemed “vouchers” — essentially credits for buying crypto — as company income, failed to maintain adequate reserves, and used an inactive customer support number on vouchers. The agency is seeking to revoke Coinme’s money-transmitter license and to ban its CEO from the state’s money‑services industry for 10 years. ^[43]

Coinme calls the case an accounting dispute over a discontinued product, stressing that vouchers can still be redeemed or refunded and represent less than 1% of over $1 billion in transactions it has processed since 2014. ^[44]

A bigger pattern: Crypto ATMs and illicit finance

These legal fights mirror findings from a recent investigation originally published in The New York Times and republished in regional outlets such as The Seattle Times, which drew on analytics from firm TRM Labs. The analysis concluded that illegal transactions at cryptocurrency kiosks occur at a rate more than 17 times higher than in the broader crypto ecosystem, despite representing a tiny slice of overall digital-asset activity. ^[45]

TRM has said only about 1.2% of cash‑to‑crypto transactions at ATMs were classified as illicit in 2023 — but also acknowledged to CNN that a significant share of scams run through these machines, and that reported numbers likely undercount the true scale. ^[46]

Globally, there are now more than 45,000 Bitcoin ATMs in the United States alone, according to ABC News. Many are clustered in small businesses that may not have the training or staffing to intervene when they see a suspicious transaction — though, as cases in Idaho and Texas show, alert clerks can sometimes save tens of thousands of dollars by pulling the plug and calling police. ^[47]

How to protect yourself — and your family — from crypto ATM scams

The core message from police, regulators and elder‑advocacy groups is strikingly consistent: if anyone you don’t personally know tells you to use a cryptocurrency ATM, assume it’s a scam.

Drawing on recent alerts from Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Fredericksburg and others, here are the most important red flags and safeguards: ^[48]

Red flags

A call, text or email from “law enforcement,” the IRS, Social Security, your bank or a tech company demanding immediate payment
Threats of arrest, account closure, deportation or loss of benefits if you don’t act at once
Instructions to keep the transaction secret or not speak to bank staff or family
A stranger giving you a QR code or a long string of letters and numbers and telling you to scan or type it at a machine
Anyone saying the only way to fix a problem or secure your money is to use a Bitcoin or crypto ATM

What to do instead

Hang up and call the organization back using a phone number from its official website, your bank card or a statement — not the number that called or texted you.
If you’re already at a machine, stop the transaction, step away and talk to a trusted friend, family member or store employee.
If you feel pressured or threatened, contact your local police or sheriff’s office on their non‑emergency line (or 911 if you believe you’re in immediate danger).
Encourage older relatives — especially during holiday visits — to talk openly about scams and to call you before sending money in response to any urgent request. ^[49]

For those who have already used a crypto ATM under suspicious circumstances, authorities urge victims to act quickly. In some states, including Iowa and Nebraska, new laws require operators to offer partial refunds for certain fraud‑related transactions if victims report them within a set time frame and provide documentation. ^[50]

AARP chapters and state banking regulators are also ramping up education efforts. New Hampshire, for example, is promoting a free in‑person seminar on crypto ATM scams later this month, in partnership with AARP. ^[51]

The bottom line

As of December 9, 2025, crypto ATM scams are no longer fringe crimes. They are woven into everyday life — showing up at suburban gas stations, strip‑mall convenience stores and retirement communities across the country.

The latest wave of stories — from Westlake’s near‑miss and tragic losses to multimillion‑dollar countywide tallies, state enforcement actions and new local ordinances — suggests that law enforcement and regulators are finally catching up to how these kiosks are being abused.