Guest Oped: New Jersey seniors are losing millions at crypto ATMs. Lawmakers should act

Marlene, an 80-year-old New Jersey woman, saw a warning pop up on her computer and called the number on the screen. The man who answered said he was from Apple. He told her that her money was in danger and that she needed to move it immediately. Following his instructions, she withdrew cash and deposited it into a cryptocurrency kiosk. She lost $9,500 — nearly everything in her checking account.

Marlene was not speculating in cryptocurrency. She was trying to protect money she already had. The machine turned a familiar scam tactic — urgency and fear — into a fast, hard-to-reverse transfer.

The numbers show how serious the problem has become. In 2025, New Jersey residents filed 369 complaints involving cryptocurrency kiosks and reported nearly $17.9 million in adjusted losses, according to the FBI. That is one of the highest state loss totals in the country. Nationally, more than half of kiosk-related complaints involved people over 50.

The scam can begin with a fake bank alert, a computer pop-up, an impersonated police officer or a government agency. What happens next is almost always the same. The victim is told to withdraw cash, find a Bitcoin ATM and follow step-by-step instructions while the scammer stays on the phone. Once the transaction is complete, the money is often gone.