Targeting Crypto ATM Fraud in Tennessee

For more than 20 years, Philip Gentile, a former team leader for the United States Postal Inspection Service, has educated older Tennesseans about scams involving criminals who ask them to send money through the mail.

But a few years ago, he added information to his presentations about a more high-tech and increasingly popular fraud tool: cryptocurrency kiosks. He did so after his postal team worked a case involving a Chattanooga woman who lost $800,000 in a scam using one of the machines.

“Bad guys across the world realize there’s a new way to get money from [victims that is] much easier versus cash in the mail or a check” or a money wire, says Gentile, now the chairperson of the East Tennessee Elder Justice Coalition, an advocacy group for residents 60 and older.

Addressing that threat is one of AARP Tennessee’s main goals in the 2026 legislative session, underway in January. Advocates will push for legislation to regulate cryptocurrency kiosks, also called crypto ATMs. Advocates want legislators to set limits on daily transactions and other consumer protections.

Also this year, AARP will advocate for the creation of a state-facilitated retirement savings program. Addressing fraud and promoting financial security are key, says Makayla McCree, AARP Tennessee advocacy director.

“You cannot have financial security if you are constantly under threat of being defrauded out of the money you’ve worked so hard for,” McCree says.

CREATING SAFEGUARDS

In 2024, Tennessee consumers lost $190.3 million to internet crime, including crypto ATM fraud, FBI data shows. Because fraud is underreported, experts say the true number is far higher.

Nationwide, fraud involving crypto kiosks is surging. In 2024, consumers reported losing $246.7 million to crypto ATM-related fraud — a 31 percent increase from 2023, according to FBI data. In cases where the victim’s age was known, 86 percent of the losses involved people over 60.

In 2025, AARP helped pass laws or write regulations in at least 14 states to protect consumers from crypto ATM fraud, and more states are looking to do so.

In Tennessee, AARP held meetings with a team of stakeholders, including law enforcement, members of the banking industry and advocacy groups.

At a meeting last October, McCree says everyone at the table agreed that protections are needed. Those discussed included setting daily transaction limits, reducing the transaction fees that the machines charge and penalizing crypto ATM operators if too many transactions at their machines are found to be fraudulent.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association is pushing for a state ban on the machines after seeing a marked increase in crypto ATM fraud starting in 2023, says Cumberland County Sheriff Casey Cox, chair of the association’s legislative committee. Cryptocurrency investing can be legitimate, but most people do so online or at financial institutions, Cox notes.

But if a ban isn’t possible, he says that consumer protections such as daily limits would help curtail crypto ATM fraud.

ENCOURAGING SAVINGS

AARP Tennessee this year is also supporting legislation to establish a state-facilitated retirement savings program for private sector workers. Businesses with five or more workers would be required to participate unless they already offer a retirement plan. Employees would automatically contribute 5 percent of each paycheck to the program, but they could opt out or adjust the amount of the deduction.

In 2022, an estimated 1.2 million private sector employees in Tennessee did not have access to a traditional pension or a retirement savings plan through work, according to AARP research.

State Rep. Charlie Baum (R-Murfreesboro) filed a bill to create a state-facilitated program for consideration during the 2026 legislative session. Baum authored a similar bill in 2023, but it failed to pass.

“Concerns about the bill were that it would represent an expansion of government ... and I share those concerns,” Baum notes. “But I believe that the benefit in terms of increased household savings outweigh the potential costs.”

Baum says that because there is already a structure in place for the public sector retirement plan, the private sector counterpart could function in parallel and cost the state little money once it’s up and running.

Carina Storrs covers aging, health policy, infectious disease and other issues. She has written for the Bulletin since 2023.

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