PEORIA, AZ — Arizona is looking to crack down on Bitcoin ATM scams, something that has been becoming more and more popular among scammers each year.
House Bill 2387, introduced by state representative David Marshall, aims to crack down on Bitcoin ATM fraud by limiting the daily transaction amount to $1,000, requiring state operator licensing and refund policy options among other things.
“We’re seeing more and more scammers try to get people to pay them through bitcoin, which is number one really hard to trace,” Attorney General Kris Mayes told ABC15.
Tamara, who lives in Peoria, fell victim to a scam last summer when she lost $17,000 dollars.
“It was 7,000 of my checking account, all gone, and I’m on social security, and then it was 10,000 out of my IRA,” Tamara told ABC15.
She thought she was talking to someone from PayPal, but instead, it was a fraudster who answered the phone.
“While I was on the phone with him, he said,’I just want you to know someone has tried to hack into your, not only your PayPal account, but all of your accounts, your IRA’,” Tamara said.
The scammer told Tamara she needed to withdraw money from her accounts to make it look like the hacker had access. She took out $7,000 in gift cards, and then another $10,000 which she transferred to the scammer through a Bitcoin ATM.
“My Spidey senses were going off, but it was like, he said he wasn’t going to put the money back in unless you complete this task and then it was like a threat,” Tamara said.
According to the 2023 FBI Cryptocurrency Fraud Report, Arizona lost roughly $127 million dollars to virtual money fraud, with people over 60 being targeted the most.
“There’s not enough regulation on these Bitcoin machines and cryptocurrency I believe in general, but especially the ATM machines. So, we’re supporting and helping pass legislation that will at least limit the amount of money that people could put into a Bitcoin machine on a daily basis,” Mayes said.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, fraud from Bitcoin ATMs or BTMs, accounted for just $12 million dollars in 2020, that number grew to $112 million in 2023. In the first half alone in 2024, there was $66 million dollars in fraud.
