Automated teller machines have been a part of banking and financial services for more than half a century. But, until recently, they served mostly as a vehicle for receiving cash, depositing checks or reviewing balances.
However, the addition of cryptocurrency to ATMs in recent years has added a new wrinkle to the basic card skimmers and over-the-shoulder, old-school PIN-snatching. More and more cybercriminals are seeing the reliable, traditional ATM as a prime focal point for their cryptocurrency scams. Indeed, the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) last month announced that it was launching a national program to educate “law enforcement and consumers … addressing cryptocurrency fraud schemes.”
“Although the vast majority [about 99%] of cryptocurrency transactions represent legitimate activity, some consumers are falling victim to clever scam artists,” according to the ATMIA’s release. “People who would never hand over a blank check or their credit card to a stranger, are tricked into completing a cryptocurrency transaction for one. And these tend to be the type of romance, investment, and merchandise scams that have been around for decades.”
In fact, the ATMIA created its own “ATM Cryptocurrency Deployers Advocacy Group” in 2021, when leaders noted that “membership of crypto ATM deployers really surged…
