Crypto Currency ATM Scams

Cryptocurrency kiosks, also known as crypto ATMs or virtual currency kiosks, are used to convert dollars into digital currency. These machines may look like regular ATMs, but criminals can also use them as a fast, easy and hard-to-trace way to get access to victims’ cash. Crypto ATMs make it easy for scammers to convince victims to deposit thousands of dollars to “solve” urgent financial problems, making it more difficult to recover stolen funds.

In many cases, these scams begin with a message from someone claiming to be a trusted source, directing you to withdraw cash from your financial institution and head to a nearby crypto ATM. Once the cash is fed into the crypto ATM, it's converted to cryptocurrency and ultimately lands in the criminal’s wallet.

Criminals are finding great success in convincing targets to use crypto ATMs because they aren’t well understood. If you receive an unexpected communication from someone who claims to represent a business you engage with, sign into your account via an app or website or call using a number on a paper statement, rather than following their direction on responding by a given link or phone number. If someone ever contacts and directs you to a crypto ATM to solve an emergency, it’s a scam.

Report scams to local law enforcement. For help from AARP, call 1-877-908-3360 or visit the AARP Fraud Watch Network at www.aarp.org/fraudwatchnetwork.

With about 1 million members in Virginia, AARP is the largest organization working on behalf of people age 50-plus and their families in the Commonwealth. To learn more about how AARP Virginia is working in your community, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aarpvirginia and follow @AARPVa on X at www.X.com/aarpva.

 AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to the more than 100 million Americans 50-plus and their families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org/about-aarp/, www.aarp.org/español or follow @AARP, @AARPenEspañol and @AARPadvocates on social media.