Example: How a Crypto ATM Scam Took $159,000 From Alaina

An elderly woman with silver hair and a long scarf stands alone at a cash-accepting crypto kiosk inside a brightly lit convenience store at night, holding an envelope of cash; the kiosk screen shows a large yellow warning triangle.

Alaina Weisman is an actor and writer in her late 70s, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Scammers posing as federal agents told her that her bank accounts had been compromised. To protect her money, she needed to withdraw it and deposit it at a crypto ATM. She went. She stood at the machine inside a convenience store. The machine itself flashed a warning that it was sometimes used in scams.^[1] She had been told to ignore it. She fed over $11,000 into the machine. Total losses eventually reached $159,000.^[1]

The warning was right there on the screen. The callers however used a real-sounding agency name and a case number to sound official and the trust she had placed in the callers made it impossible to see it.