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WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI (WSAU) — The Wood County Sheriff’s Office is calling for state regulations on Cryptocurrency ATMs after they were called to investigate numerous scams involving the machines.
Lieutenant Scott Goldberg says they’ve seen a spike in the number of calls involving these machines over the last two years. Each call starts with a warrant to obtain the cash inside the machine, then the courts get to do their thing. “If somebody put $20,000 in that machine and we obtain it through a seizure, that money could sit in evidence for several months or longer while [the case] is being litigated in court.”
Goldberg says this can put them in a tight spot with the company, which also wants to obtain the money that they used to create a crypto wallet. “They’re trying to push back on us, but we want to make it very clear that we are going to continue to do these investigations. We are not going to be bullied or pushed around by a company just because they have a lot of money.
“We want to work with these companies. We want to come up with a long-term solution because we don’t want to see the victims. We don’t want to see victims locally, or across the state,” added Goldberg.
Goldberg would like to see daily limits on deposits and a hold process for large transactions, much like banks use for large checks. He says the latter would be especially effective because it would provide a chance to stop the transaction if the depositor realizes they’ve been scammed.
Crypto ATMs are often found in public spaces like convenience stores and grocery stores. They allow people to turn cash into crypto, which is then held in a digital wallet. Scammers can then steal that digital wallet and its contents.
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