Chapter 11
Crypto ATM scams
What you'll get from this chapter: Why no real bank, court, or police department will ever send you to a Bitcoin machine, and what to do if you are already standing at one.
In this chapter
- Words in this chapter
- Your steps
No real bank, police department, court, or government office will tell you to feed cash into a Bitcoin machine.
A , sometimes called a Bitcoin kiosk, is a machine that takes cash, turns it into cryptocurrency, and sends it to a wallet address (the account number for crypto). The person on the phone reads you an address, or points you at a (a square barcode) on the machine. Once the cash is in, they have the cryptocurrency. The store cannot reverse it.
The story is usually fear. A caller says you missed jury duty, your bank account is being emptied, or a warrant is waiting. They stay on the line while you drive to the machine and tell you not to talk to anyone at the store. A real agency does not collect a fine this way, and a real bank does not protect your money by having you convert it to cryptocurrency.
Many crypto thefts start with your phone number, not your wallet. The next chapter covers .
Words in this chapter
- . A machine, also called a Bitcoin kiosk, that takes cash and sends cryptocurrency to a wallet address. No bank, court, or police department collects payment this way.