Edwardsville police report scam involving Bitcoin ATMs
There’s a new reason to protect your identity, financial data and other personal information – cryptocurrency scams.
“With the addition of Bitcoin ATMs in the area, we’re starting to see people getting scammed,” said Edwardsville Dep. Chief of Police, Michael Lybarger. – The problem is going to get worse.
If you’ve heard the name but aren’t familiar with Bitcoin, it’s a decentralized digital currency, or cryptocurrency, that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a publicly distributed ledger called a blockchain.
“The Bitcoin ATM makes it easy for anyone, even people with no knowledge of Bitcoin, to acquire it,” Lybarger said. “If someone calls or emails you, don’t go to a Bitcoin ATM and get Bitcoin to send them. This is just a new twist on an old scam. It’s easier to send Bitcoin than cash [gift] card and there is less risk for the criminal.”
Bitcoin ATMs are kiosks that allow a person to purchase Bitcoin using a vending machine. Some Bitcoin ATMs offer two-way functionality, enabling both the purchase of Bitcoin and the sale of Bitcoin for cash. Bitcoin machines are not the same as traditional ATMs, but work in the same way.
Three are located in Edwardsville: a Quad Coin machine located at 415 N. Main St., a CoinFlip machine located at 332 S. Buchanan St. in King City Liquors, and the third is a Bitcoin depository at 1089 South State Route 157 in the Circle K convenience store. Additionally, a RockItCoin station is located at the ZX gas station at the southwest corner of Route 159 and Glen Carbon Road in Glen Carbon.
According to Norton.com, watch out for red flags that could indicate a cryptocurrency scam. Some examples are if the offer seems too good to be true, a website’s address bar does not begin with “HTTPS”, the payment request is urgent or requested in cryptocurrency, or account login is requested.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 14% of all reported losses are to cryptocurrency scams. Elon Musk impersonators have stolen more than $2 million in cryptocurrency as part of scams and 20% of romance scam victims lose money via cryptocurrency scams.
Cryptocurrency scams have increased by 516% from 2020 to 2021, and investors in the 20-30 age group are the most vulnerable to being scammed.
Fraudsters stole nearly $8 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Norton.com reports that since October 2021, nearly 46,000 people have lost crypto assets totaling $1 billion, which equates to a reported median loss of $2,600.
There are ways people can avoid cryptocurrency scams. Aside from not using cryptocurrency, consumers can research before investing money in cryptocurrencies. Since Bitcoin and others are not regulated by the government, it should be a red flag when someone says you have to pay via cryptocurrency. Nothing has to be paid in Bitcoin or the others.
If you believe you have been targeted by a cryptocurrency scam, report it to the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
Unfortunately for people, there are few options to potentially recover defrauded cryptocurrency. Those who lose crypto assets in a scam have an opportunity to report their case to the FTC.
Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people who used the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The currency began to be used in 2009, when its implementation was released as open source software. A few governments officially use Bitcoin in some capacity: El Salvador and the Central African Republic have adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, while Ukraine is accepting Bitcoin donations to fund its resistance to Russia’s invasion this year.
Just as dollars are divided into smaller units, so is Bitcoin. However, cryptocurrency is constantly changing its market value, unlike the dollar. One bitcoin is divisible by eight decimal places. Units for smaller amounts of Bitcoin are the millibitcoin (mBTC), equal to 1⁄1000 bitcoin, and the satoshi (sat), which is the smallest possible division, and named as a tribute to bitcoin’s creator, representing 1⁄100000000 (one hundred millionth). ) bitcoin. 100,000 satoshis are one mBTC. The Bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger that records bitcoin transactions.
