Scammers increasingly use crypto ATMs, gift cards, and unfamiliar apps to defraud victims through irreversible transactions that conceal their identities, often posing as legitimate entities and creating urgency to pressure victims, who are advised to pause, verify independently, avoid unusual payment methods, and report suspected fraud to authorities.
Scams involving crypto ATMs (also called Bitcoin ATMs or crypto kiosks) resulted in more than $388 million in reported losses in 2025, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center—a 58 percent increase over the prior year. Actual losses may be higher due to underreporting. Unlike a typical ATM, where cash can be deposited into or withdrawn from an account managed by the ATM’s user, cash deposited into a crypto ATM is converted into& various forms of cryptocurrency and deposited into a specified crypto address, commonly called…
These frauds exploit emotional vulnerability and trust rather than technical weaknesses.
- Romance Scams: Scammers build long-term online relationships with victims, eventually fabricating a “crisis” (medical emergency, legal trouble, or travel costs) that requires the victim to send money.
- Pig Butchering: A hybrid scam where the criminal builds a romantic or platonic relationship to eventually “tutor” the victim in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment.