AARP Fights Against Indiana Crypto ATM Fraud

Several years ago, the Evansville Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit started looking for crimes involving cryptocurrency kiosks — a then novel way of stealing money from people that has spread across the country.

Detectives saw their first fraud cases involving the machines, also called crypto ATMs, in 2022, followed by 11 such crimes in 2023, 20 in 2024, and 22 in just the first seven months of 2025.

These cases can involve any type of scam. Sometimes criminals pose as law enforcement agents with a warrant for the victim’s arrest or as a friendly stranger with an investment opportunity, says the department’s Sgt. Nathan VanCleave.

They tell people to go to crypto kiosks — which can look like traditional bank ATMs and are located in gas stations, grocery stores and other common businesses — and deposit large sums of cash. The average transaction amount related to fraud that the Evansville Police Department has seen is nearly $12,000, VanCleave notes.

More and more, he says, criminals are using crypto ATMs to steal money because the transactions often involve overseas crypto exchanges that don’t have to cooperate with U.S. authorities, making it almost impossible for defrauded Hoosiers to recover their money.

To combat the growing problem, AARP Indiana is urging state lawmakers to introduce legislation during the 2026 legislative session to protect consumers from scams involving crypto ATMs. AARP will also push for measures to address gift card scams and deed fraud. Legislators return to Indianapolis in January.

In 2024, Indiana consumers reported losing $125.1 million to crypto kiosk, gift card and other types of internet crime, FBI data shows. However, experts say that fraud is typically underreported.

Crypto ATMs, gift cards and gold are among the top ways scammers ask for payments, says Christopher Knight, a forensic accountant with the FBI’s Indianapolis field office. Knight says he started to see crypto ATM-enabled scams a couple of years ago and has noticed a definite increase in the last six months across the state.

Money that goes into a crypto ATM moves overseas even faster than funds from a debit or credit card transaction, he notes. “Once [crypto ATM transactions] occur ... it’s very seldom that we can recover money,” Knight says.

Older adults are especially vulnerable to scams involving crypto ATMs because they’re generally less familiar with Bitcoin and other digital currency, VanCleave says. He presents at community events, including at AARP Indiana fraud education talks, and is working with AARP to push for legislation to combat crypto fraud.

Nationwide, cryptocurrency kiosk crimes are surging. Consumers in 2024 reported losing a total of $246.7 million via crypto ATMs — a 31 percent increase from 2023, according to the FBI. Among the crimes where the victim’s age was known, 86 percent of the losses occurred among Americans over 60.

EXPANDING PROTECTIONS

Nationwide, AARP this year has successfully backed new laws or rules to protect consumers from crypto ATM fraud in at least 14 states; efforts to pass such legislation are underway in additional states. AARP Indiana is looking at laws passed this year in Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska as models for possible Hoosier State legislation.

Requiring crypto kiosk operators to have a state license is one of the most important protections, says Ambre Marr, AARP Indiana’s legislative director.

Although kiosks must already be registered federally, Marr says that licensing them with the state as well would allow law enforcement and other agencies to know how many there are and where.

For his part, VanCleave says that the rise in crypto ATMs — now about 70 in Evansville — is helping drive the rise in crimes involving the machines.

AARP Indiana would also like to see additional protections that other states have passed, including daily transaction limits, posted fraud warnings, receipts with transaction information to help law enforcement investigate, and refunds on hefty fees in fraudulent transactions.

TARGETING OTHER SCAMS

In 2026, AARP Indiana will also advocate for legislation to combat gift card fraud.

Criminals convince victims to tell them card and PIN numbers as payment — and as opposed to cryptocurrency, most individuals are familiar with gift cards and how to buy them, Knight says. Alternatively, criminals steal PIN numbers from gift cards in store racks and then drain funds without unsuspecting consumers realizing it.

In 2025, AARP has helped 11 states pass laws to prevent gift card fraud. AARP Indiana is pushing for some of these protections such as requiring stores to post scam warnings and train staff, as well as requiring that companies use more secure card packaging, Marr says.

The last of the three types of crimes that AARP Indiana aims to address is deed fraud. Older homeowners are among the individuals particularly impacted by such fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

AARP Indiana is pushing for several deed fraud-fighting measures, including enabling notaries to use the most sophisticated identity proofing and allowing local governments to report land documents that appear fraudulent to local law enforcement.

Go to aarp.org/in to learn more about AARP’s advocacy efforts.

Carina Storrs, a New York-based writer, covers aging, health policy, infectious disease and other issues.

MORE ON FRAUD

• Americans Face Rising Fraud Risk from Cryptocurrency ATMs
• AARP Fraud Watch Network
• Scam-Tracking Map