Spokane County bans ‘crypto kiosks’ often used in scams targeting the elderly

In an effort to reduce scams that primarily target the elderly and their pockets, the Spokane County Commission cracked down on so-called “crypto kiosks” or “Bitcoin ATMs” in stores around the county.

The board adopted an ordinance Tuesday preventing businesses from having these kiosks within their stores. Existing kiosks are to be removed within 60 days before the county deems them a nuisance. The vote was unanimous. 

These kiosks, in which people can deposit cash or put in their bank information to be converted to cryptocurrency and placed in a digital wallet, are often used by scammers to do their bidding to steal money from unsuspecting victims, said Spokane County Prosecutor Preston McCollam at the county meeting.

Scammers generally start by cold calling their victim, McCollam said. They disguise themselves as law enforcement or bankers, for example, and use scare tactics to hurry the victim to a kiosk, often found at convenience or grocery stores. The victim then inputs money or banking information into the system, unknowingly sending it to the scammer’s digital wallet in the form of cryptocurrency.

“Once it’s deposited, it’s untraceable,” McCollam said. “It’s essentially getting deposited in the bad guy’s bank account or the wrongdoer’s bank account, and then it’s not able to be followed from there on forward.”