Federal Trade Commission Issues Warning on Crypto ATM Scams, Says Victims Losing $10,000 on Average: Report

The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) is reportedly issuing a warning about crypto ATM fraud, noting that victims are shedding hundreds of {dollars} to this scheme.

In keeping with a brand new report from NBC Information, the regulatory physique is warning customers that dangerous actors are stealing cash by Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs, or machines that immediately convert money into main crypto belongings primarily based on market capitalization.

FTC knowledge exhibits that $65 million was stolen within the first half of the yr by scammers utilizing Bitcoin ATMs. Furthermore, it exhibits that between 2020 and 2023, the amount of cash siphoned off from some of these scams elevated by as a lot as tenfold to greater than $110 million.

The FTC says victims lose a mean of $10,000 to cryptocurrency ATM scams.

In keeping with the report, the fraudsters pose as financial institution tellers, authorities staff or technical assist brokers to attempt to get victims to deposit cash into the ATMs.

In a single case, a lady was scammed after scammers instructed her her Social Safety quantity had been frozen. They instructed her that to repair the issue, she needed to withdraw money and deposit it right into a Bitcoin ATM, with the promise that the cash would seem again in her checking account the following day.

Says senior knowledge researcher on the FTC Emma Fletcher:

“In case your coronary heart begins racing and tells you one thing is significantly fallacious, it might very properly be that while you’re attempting to guard your self from fraud, you’re really being scammed.”

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