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The FBI is issuing a warning for consumers heading into the new year, sounding the alarm about bitcoin ATM machines and their use in cryptocurrency scams. Unsuspecting victims are being convinced to deposit hard-earned cash into a bitcoin ATM.
In Florida, an 80-year-old man was found putting tens of thousands of dollars in life savings into a machine. He was on the phone with unidentified scammers who were relentless, until a responding officer grabbed the phone.
“Who are you?” the caller asks.
“I’m the police.” responds the officer, who then pleads with the man to stop putting his money into the machine. “No bank would ever have you do this, sir. They just stole your money. Whoever these people are, they stole your money.”
The response wasn’t fast enough as the victim was out $50,000 before he stopped.
Brand new data from the FBI shows Americans collectively lost more than $333 million to scams using bitcoin ATMs in 2025, a serious uptick from the previous year.
- 2020: $12 million
- 2021: $33 million
- 2022: $78 million
- 2023: $114 million
- 2024: $247 million
- 2025: $333 million
ABC News found dozens of people convinced by scammers to send money through a bitcoin ATM, including 86-year-old Fran Bates. She was seen loading thousands of dollars into a machine until good Samaritan called police. Scammers convinced her that her bank account had been compromised and she had to deposit the money for safety.
“I’m in danger,” Bates said when a responding officer approached.
“Okay, no you’re not, ma’am. Okay, stop putting money in there,” Lt. James Stewart said.
“This is the security team,” the alleged scammer said over the phone.
“No, you’re not,” Stewart replied.
She was one click away from losing it all.
In September, Central Oregon Daily reported on the case of a La Pine woman who was scammed out of $57,000 using bitcoin. She was being convinced she was rescuing a neighbor from jail. Not only was that neighbor not in jail, he was the one that ultimately caught wind of what was happening and helped stop the woman.
“They look pretty much like a regular ATM. The difference is you don’t really get money out of ’em. You put money in and buy cryptocurrency,” AARP identity theft and fraud prevention expert Amy Nofziger said.
Adam Zarazinski, a crypto forensics expert, has encountered hundreds of these scams and says bitcoin ATM companies either know their machines are being used for scams “or they’re turning a blind eye to it.”
Bitcoin ATM companies say their kiosks include ample fraud alerts, warning users as many as four times over the course of a transaction. They deny responsibility for the actions of scammers who misuse their machines and say these scams also occur with other more traditional forms of payment.
Central Oregon Daily’s Travis Pittman contributed local information on this story.