- In what might be the most aggressive crackdown on crypto ATMs to date, Spokane City Council has voted unanimously to ghost the machines within 60 days.
- According to police, money fed into Spokane’s crypto ATMs flew to suspicious addresses in Russia, China, and North Korea.
- With the FBI reporting $246 million in crypto ATM-related scam losses in 2024, mostly involving people over 60, Spokane has decided to act.
In an extremely innovative move that is set to rattle scammers across at least three continents, the Spokane City Council in Washington has unanimously voted to ban virtual money machines or cryptocurrency ATMs across the city.
Spokane is also the first city in the state to come up with a swift solution to combat scams.
Council member Paul Dillon, who spearheaded the charge, said these virtual money machines “have become a preferred tool for scammers to defraud unsuspecting victims”.
The ordinance, which bans new machines and gives existing ones 60 days to vanish from the face of the earth.
Paul, who seems to view crypto ATMs like the Tinder profiles of fraud, has told local newspaper The Spokesman-Review that the measure “will ban future ones, as well as remove existing kiosks.
“We see a lot located in poor neighborhoods, convenience stores, grocery stores.”
On Tuesday, the Spokane City Council said it will track progress and report on the overwhelming impact on the frequency of reported crimes involving crypto kiosks, because crypto scams rarely ever happen without the presence of a crypto ATM.
Police Detective Tim Schwering gave a chilling account of how these scams operate globally with funds from crypto kiosks, often traced in Russia, China, or North Korea.
The FBI added that in April nearly 11,000 complaints and over $246 million in crypto ATM-related scam losses in 2024 alone.
They also noted that it was mostly the elderly, specifically those over 60 years old, who have been falling victim to these crypto kiosk fraud.
Spokane plans to monitor the impact of the ban, just in case the scammers decide to look for alternative means to carry out their scams.