Cyber crime legislation aims to protect victims from bad decisions

Ken Heideman has an extensive curriculum vitae, which includes his being a meteorologist, a writer, a public speaker and an enthusiastic cat owner.

Ken Heideman, a scam victim, speaks on Sept. 14 during a press conference at the Manchester Police Department about Senate Bill 482, a law that will go into effect in December against ATM crypto scams. (Photo by John Koziol)

But his resume also lists him as among the many Granite Staters, who despite being bright and experienced in life, have falled hard for a financial cyber scam.

In 2022, Heideman, who is a Nashua resident, went down the rabbit hole of the “dark web” and through a long series of self-inflicted mistakes, ended up withdrawing a metaphorical ton of dollars from his account at a local bank.

He then converted the greenbacks, via an automated teller machine at a convenience store in his hometown, into crypto currency that got sent, untraceably, into the ether.

His story, however, has a somewhat positive ending, which he said would have been more positive still, however, had Senate Bill 482 been law four years ago.

SB 482, which goes into effect in December, sets a daily conversion limit of $2,000 per digital transaction kiosks of which there are about a dozen in the Queen City, according to Manchester Police Det. Ray Lamy, who heads the agency’s fraud investigations.