Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin has announced a new bill that aims to prevent fraud associated with crypto ATMs. Americans suffered $66 million worth of losses to crypto ATM scams in the first half of 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Durbin says his potential legislation would require crypto ATM operators to warn consumers about scams and take steps to prevent fraud at their machines, and it would establish measures that would limit the amount that people lose if they are swindled.

Explains the Illinois lawmaker,

“There are now more than 30,000 cryptocurrency ATMs in this country. And they are being used by criminals to cheat Americans out of their hard-earned savings to the tune of $114 million in 2023 alone. Most of the victims are senior citizens. It’s past time that we put some common-sense guardrails in place to stop fraud in this largely unregulated industry.”

Durbin says the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly 2,700 crypto ATM fraud complaints from individuals aged 60 and older in 2023, more than all the other age demographics combined. The senator’s bill would also grant law enforcement “new tools” to track down crypto ATM fraudsters.

Durbin’s potential legislation materializes as the number of domestic crypto ATMs dwindles. The US lost 1,228 machines in February, per data from Coin ATM Radar.

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