Bitcoin ATM fraud reached new highs in 2025, with scammers reportedly stealing $333 million from victims, the FBI stated.
Typically of bitcoin ATM fraud, scammers impersonate either a company or a financial institution and flag supposed suspicious exercise on the sufferer’s account, advising them to deposit cash right into a bitcoin ATM to guard their funds or treatment the difficulty. That cash then goes instantly into the scammers’ account.
Bitcoin ATMs have elevated in reputation in the US, with over 30,000 machines in the States in 2024 — which is about 81.27% of the bitcoin ATMs in the world, in keeping with finance information website Finance Magnates.
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The FBI’s Web Crime Grievance Heart (IC3) reported that greater than 10,000 individuals had been victims of bitcoin ATM-related fraud in 2025 alone.
“Primarily based on IC3 reporting, information reveals from January to November of 2025 there are over 12,000 complaints and over $333.5 million in financial losses, a rise in comparison with the identical time span final 12 months,” the FBI stated in an announcement emailed to Enterprise Insider.
In 2024, the FTC reported that cryptocurrency scams in particular will be extra financially devastating than different sorts of fraud. The report stated that, halfway by means of 2024, the median loss reported by people related to cryptocurrency fraud was $5,400. The median particular person loss tied to experiences of basic fraud was $447.
And the sum of money misplaced has been steadily rising annually.
Knowledge from the FTC reveals that bitcoin ATMs accounted for $114 million in reported losses in 2023 and $78 million in losses in 2022, which means reported losses resulting from bitcoin ATM fraud greater than doubled in simply two years.
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The FTC urges individuals to pay shut consideration to any crimson flags when contacted by a financial institution or firm by double-checking cellphone numbers and reaching out on to firms that provoke contact with you. The company additionally suggests slowing down and never feeling rushed as a result of scammers usually desire a fast transaction.
Bitcoin has been used in different types of fraud. The FTC advises that professional companies and authorities businesses is not going to request bitcoin as a type of cost.
Whereas fraud doesn’t solely plague sure generations, older victims have been extra prone to cryptocurrency crimes, the info reveals.
Victims 60 and over accounted for 71% of the reported losses utilizing bitcoin ATMs in the course of the first half of 2024, shedding $46 million, in keeping with the FTC.
