Depositors beware: Crypto ATMs are the newest way to scam you
Older Australians, who have traditionally had large targets on their backs for scammers, are now disproportionately falling prey to the growing industry of cryptocurrency ATM fraud.
When someone with grey hair lines up at a mall or petrol station next to a small, weird-looking machine that resembles a cross between a Chubb safe and a monochrome ATM, alarm bells should sound.
Six years ago, you would have needed to scour the landscape to find a crypto ATM, given there were only 23 in Australia. But they are now popping up like mushrooms. More than 1800 operate across the country today.
To put that into perspective, that is the same number of ATMs owned and operated by the Commonwealth Bank and twice the number of those branded as National Australia Bank or ANZ.
Turns out we are the third-largest host to crypto ATMs globally after the US and Canada.
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The federal police and the financial crimes agency AUSTRAC have called out $3 million lost to scammers via crypto ATMs in a year, but they admit the real amounts are a multiple of this. The AFP describes the amount of money it knows about as the tip of the iceberg.
And the problem is approaching epidemic proportions.
In 2024, ReportCyber – Australia's online cybercrime reporting system operated by the Australian Cyber Security Centre – received the equivalent of one reported scam every 2½ days, each with an average loss of more than $20,000.
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