BBB of the Mid-South: Cryptocurrency kiosks facilitate fraud

Sept. 17, 2026, 4:03 a.m. CT

Cryptocurrency kiosks, sometimes called cryptocurrency ATMs or Bitcoin ATMs, look like traditional ATMs and allow customers to exchange cash for cryptocurrency. They’re often located in convenience stores and gas stations.

I wrote a column in 2024 describing how they were being used to facilitate scams. Crooks convince victims they need to send money for some reason and direct them to cryptocurrency kiosks to make the payment. Scammers like cryptocurrency kiosks because once the money is transferred, it’s almost impossible for the victims to recover it.

In that column, I cited an FTC report that fraud losses involving cryptocurrency kiosks topped $64 million in the first six months of 2024 – $128 million annualized. The losses have only grown since then. The FBI issued an alert in May noting that its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 13,460 complaints of fraudulent activity involving cryptocurrency kiosks in 2025, with losses exceeding $388 million.

The alert broke down the numbers by state. The complaint count from Tennessee was 348 and the dollar losses were $15 million. The numbers were much lower in Mississippi and Arkansas.

The FTC says cryptocurrency kiosks are most often used in government and business impersonation scams and tech-support scams. A California couple transferred $845,000 to crooks through a cryptocurrency kiosk following instructions from a fake FBI agent to supposedly protect the money from being seized in an investigation. On a happier note, a cashier stepped in and stopped a Kansas woman from transferring $22,800 in cryptocurrency as part of a scam perpetrated by someone claiming to work for her bank.