First U.S. city to ban ATMs that cost millions in scams

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First U.S. city to ban ATMs that cost millions in scams originally appeared on TheStreet.

The Spokane City Council in Washington State announced a ban on cryptocurrency ATMs on June 16.

The first such ban in a Washington city, it would impact 50 crypto ATMs operating across grocery and retail stores in Spokane. The authorities have given a 60-day ultimatum to the operators of these machines to uninstall them, or it could potentially lead to the revocation of their business licenses.

While these machines resemble cash ATMs, they don't dispense cryptocurrencies but allow users to buy them.

“This will ban future ones, as well as remove existing kiosks. We see a lot located in poor neighborhoods, convenience stores, grocery stores," said Councilman Paul Dillon.

“There are lots of vulnerable populations that are being preyed upon by these types of machines, and so this is really making sure that we’re taking safeguards for folks in our community so that they don’t get preyed upon and lose a lot of their savings or cash in these machines,” said Councilman Zack Zappone.

Spokane Police Department Detective Tim Schwering said he has handled several such fraud cases in which residents were cheated, The Spokesman Review reported.

Schwering said, "They’re scamming people, saying that they need to move their money into cryptocurrency in order to protect it. And by the time the money is into the cryptocurrency, it’s already too late." Officials can hardly return the funds once they have been stolen and sent outside the country, he added.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) division received more than 5,500 complaints reporting the use of cryptocurrency kiosks, with losses over $189 million in 2023.

First U.S. city to ban ATMs that cost millions in scams first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 18, 2025

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 18, 2025, where it first appeared.

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