26 victims fell prey to crypto scams since 2024, Coral Springs documents show

Cryptocurrency scam victims have collectively lost over $320,000 in the last few years in Coral Springs, documents show.

Now, the Coral Springs Police Department is advocating for banning crypto ATM kiosks — which fraudsters have reportedly used to get their victims to send over funds in a hard-to-trace form.

From 2024 to 2026, police have documented at least 26 victims of cryptocurrency scams in Coral Springs, and about 54% of them were over the age of 60.

Documents show police brought the issue before City Commission last week to advocate for a prohibition on the machines.

The fraud operations may sound like other financial schemes. An individual pretending to be a person of authority, such as law enforcement, fraud investigators or federal agents, will call victims and tell them their bank account has been compromised, there’s a warrant out for their arrest or they need to help out a family member.

The scammers will direct victims over the phone to take out cash, visit a crypto ATM to deposit money, then scan a QR code and send the funds to the fraudsters’ digital wallet in the form of Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. From that point, it becomes hard to recover the victims’ funds, police say.