Scammers Are Using Crypto ATMs to Steal Millions. AARP Is Fighting Back

On April 10, North Dakota's governor signed a crypto kiosk bill into law requiring a $2,000 limit on deposits or withdrawals per day and ordering crypto kiosk operators to provide a customer service line during certain hours, among other measures.

“Cryptocurrency fraud has taken a quantum leap in recent years,” said Josh Askvig, state director of AARP North Dakota, during a committee hearing on the bill in January. The proposed legislation, he said, “will create important consumer protections to save older North Dakotans from having their hard-earned money, sometimes their life savings, stolen by criminals misusing crypto kiosks.”

Nebraska approved legislation reflecting AARP's model recommendations on March 12. The state's version requires transaction limits, licensing, full refund options for new customers and fraud warning requirement notices on machines.

“This is a significant victory for Nebraskans and law enforcement,” said Todd Stubbendieck, state director of AARP Nebraska, in a statement on the governor’s signing. “With stronger protections against cryptocurrency theft, we are better equipped to safeguard Nebraskans’ hard-earned life savings, especially for those age 50 and older, from financial exploitation.”

AARP is continuing to work with lawmakers in other states to adopt similar protections to prevent fraud using crypto kiosks.

How crypto ATM scams work

Cryptocurrency kiosks, also known as crypto ATMs or virtual currency kiosks, are used for legitimate purposes to convert dollars into digital currency. But criminals also rely on them as a fast, easy and often hard to trace way to get access to victims’ cash.

Often, as part of tech support, extortion or government impersonator scams, a criminal will instruct their victim to withdraw cash from their own bank and deposit it into a crypto kiosk to buy virtual currency. The virtual currency is then sent to the scammer’s digital wallet. Because cryptocurrency transactions are not reversible, it can be difficult for stolen funds to be recovered.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, cryptocurrency ATM schemes have increased, particularly among older adults. Of the nearly 10,000 complaints involving cryptocurrency kiosks reported to the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2024, close to half came from people over 60. Of the roughly $250 million in losses involved in the complaints, $107 million belonged to those over 60. 

Amy Nofziger, director of fraud victim support at the AARP Fraud Watch Network, said the number of victim reports involving crypto kiosks that come through AARP’s fraud helpline is “just overwhelming.”

Some callers have lost significant sums of money, Nofziger said. A 76-year-old Florida woman, for example, contacted the AARP Fraud Watch Network last year to report she’d lost her entire savings to a crypto ATM. Attempting to access her recently deceased husband’s Apple account, the widow mistakenly contacted an Apple customer service impersonator who convinced her that her identity had been stolen. The impersonator told her to withdraw her savings and deposit the cash into a crypto kiosk for protection. The woman withdrew $30,000, put it into the machine and hasn’t had access to the money since.

“These machines have devastated victims’ lives,” Nofziger saidid. 

More safeguards needed to stop scams

Cryptocurrency kiosks have multiplied across the country quickly, leaving many states wrestling with how best to regulate them, says Francoise Cleveland, an AARP government affairs director for financial security.

“The problem is people just don’t quite understand cryptocurrency,” Cleveland said. “I think there’s an appetite among states to do something, but they just don’t understand what to do. And so with this legislation, we’re trying to help the states get a handle on the fraud that’s being perpetrated through these kiosks.”

Introducing daily transaction limits is a key priority in many of the state bills because limits can mean the difference between someone losing $2,000 or their entire life savings, Cleveland said. “We’re trying to keep those as low as possible so that people aren’t feeding all their money into a machine and never seeing it again.” 

Other consumer protections built into the bills would require kiosk operators to post clear warnings of consumer fraud to try to prevent harm and to provide receipts at the time of a transaction to allow law enforcement to investigate immediately. Many of the bills also propose refund policies for fraudulent transactions. For example, Colorado’s bill requires operators to fully refund a transaction if it is by a first-time customer, and is determined by law enforcement to be fraudulent.

Crypto kiosks already must be registered as money services businesses at the federal level, but given the continued rise of kiosk scams, many of the AARP-backed state bills call for state licensing requirements, too. 

Mandating state money transmitter licensing and adherence to existing state money-transmission regulations would enhance oversight of these machines and accountability among operators, Cleveland said. While some states already require kiosk operators to be registered, most do not.

Last year, AARP successfully fought to introduce and pass similar protections in Vermont and Minnesota. Vermont now requires cryptocurrency kiosk operators to register with the state and has a daily transaction limit of $1,000, among other measures. Under Minnesota’s law, new crypto ATM users can get a refund for losses due to fraud if they report it within 14 days of the transaction. New customers are limited to a $2,000 transaction limit.

AARP has a long history of fighting fraud that targets older Americans and equipping consumers with information and resources to better protect themselves. The AARP Fraud Watch Network can help people learn to spot and avoid scams, and the AARP Fraud Watch Helpline can assist those who believe they have fallen victim to a scam.   

Read our cryptocurrency scams tip sheet and visit our Scams & Fraud webpage for more advice and information. 

If you suspect financial fraud, report it to local law enforcement and contact the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360 or reach out to the AARP Fraud Watch Helpline for assistance.