Australian federal police said it has contacted over 90 Australians as part of a crackdown on criminal use of crypto ATMs, including pig butchering victims and suspected offenders.
One of the victims was a 77-year-old widow who was scammed out of 433,000 Australian dollars ($281,947) in an online dating scam, Australia’s financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, said on Wednesday.
Australian public broadcaster ABC reported the widow was unaware that the Belgian man she’d been dating online for two years was a fraud until police showed up at her door.
“Half day’s work” to send scammer cash
The victim said she was encouraged by the scammer, whom she met on a dating app, to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) by showing her fake documents claiming he’d made 13,000 Australian dollars ($8,464) in one week.
For her first transaction, the scammer reportedly talked her through the process, which involved withdrawing money from a regular ATM and then feeding it through a Bitcoin ATM. She sent her entire life savings in just 18 months.
The victim told the ABC she was lugging around 20,000 Australian dollars ($13,023) worth of cash at one point, adding that the transfers often took “half a day’s work,” and she became “quite expert at using the Bitcoin ATM.”
“The worst part was having to tell my daughter that I’d actually given my life savings, that had taken me 40 years to earn, and it took him 18 months to get.”
“The task force identified another woman in her 70s who was conned after seeing what she thought was a legitimate advertisement about a trading firm offering a sizeable return on investment. She lost over $200,000,” AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said.
Police charge one, issue a formal caution to others
During the crackdown, Australian police targeted the top users of crypto ATMs who were identified as being at high risk of being used for illicit activity or scam victimisation.
Police contacted 21 people in particular who were either suspected victims of crypto ATM-related scams or were alleged to be involved in illicit activities connected to the machines.
“We suspected that a large volume of crypto ATM transactions were probably illicit, but disturbingly our law enforcement partners found that almost all of the transactions we referred involved victims rather than criminals,” Thomas said.
One was charged with property laundering offenses, while four others were issued with formal cautions over suspicion they were using crypto to buy drugs or were acting as money mules for criminals.
However, some suspected mules were scam victims who either unwittingly assisted criminals or knowingly transferred funds to recover their stolen money. The AFP said that a few didn’t want to admit cybercriminals had duped them.
The latest crackdown follows AUSTRAC, rolling out new operating rules and transaction limits for crypto ATM operators on June 3 to combat scams. Last December, the agency also flagged crypto as a priority for 2025.
Fake promises for crypto
AFP Commander Graeme Marshall said in a statement that scam victims are being manipulated into feeding thousands of dollars into crypto ATMs through fake promises of love, employment, investment, or quick profits.
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“If you are guaranteed quick profits, if there is a high-pressure deadline or sense of urgency, and if you have never met the person before, cease contact immediately and report them,” he said.
“We need to get the message out there: if someone, a business or a government agency asks you to pay using cryptocurrency, do not send money.”
Australia’s online cybercrime reporting system, ReportCyber, received 150 unique reports of scams involving crypto ATMs between January 2024 and January 2025, according to the AFP, with losses exceeding 3.1 million Australian dollars ($2 million).
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