A group of U.S. Senate Democrats, led by Dick Durbin, urged top crypto ATM operators to address rising fraud targeting elderly Americans, citing $65 million in losses from Bitcoin ATMs this year.
A group of United States Senate Democrats, led by Majority Whip and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, has urged 10 of the country’s largest crypto ATM operators to address fraud and safeguard elderly Americans promptly.
In a Sept. 12 statement, seven Democratic Senators, including Elizabeth Warren, cited Federal Trade Commission data to indicate that fraud losses from Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs) amounted to $65 million in the first half of this year.
“Criminals are targeting elderly Americans, with individuals aged 60 and older being more than three times as likely to report a loss using a BTM than younger adults,” the Senators stated.
The CEOs or senior executives of Bitcoin Depot, CoinFlip, RockItCoin, Bitstop, Coinhub, Unbank, Athena Bitcoin, Byte Federal, Cash2Bitcoin, and Margo were the recipients of the letters dated September 11.
The letters, which were co-signed by Durbin, Warren, Senators Richard Blumenthal, Jack Reed, Tina Smith, Peter Welch, and Sheldon Whitehouse, urged each firm to “take immediate action” in response to allegations that their devices were contributing to “widespread financial fraud against elderly Americans.”
“As companies like yours have staged BTMs in a variety of businesses — sometimes even paying businesses to host your BTMs — there has been a marked increase in Bitcoin scams impacting elderly Americans,” the Senators wrote.
They cited a July Illinois Times report in which a business owner removed a Coinhub ATM, claiming that the only individuals who used it were scam victims and a New York Times report that detailed “egregious examples” of criminals coercing elderly Americans into sending them funds via crypto ATMs.
The letters request that the firms respond to inquiries by October 4 regarding the measures they have implemented to combat fraud. These inquiries include whether the firms have established transaction and deposit limits, provide warnings about schemes, and insure depositors against fraud.
The FTC reported earlier this month that crypto ATM schemes had increased tenfold since 2020, from $12 million to $144 million. The FBI reported that $5.6 billion was lost to crypto fraud in 2023, a 45% increase from 2022.
The FTC reported that the median reported loss to Bitcoin ATM-linked fraud was $10,000 in the first six months of this year, with an elder adult losing over two out of every three dollars.
Bitcoin Depot’s spokesperson informed Cointelegraph that the company posted scam warnings on its machines at the time of the FTC’s report. These warnings include “screen prompts that warn customers of scam potential.”
Bitcoin Depot, RockItCoin, Coinhub, and Bitstop did not promptly respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.
