Cryptocurrency ATM

Fast forward after writing these papers, I became one of the actually the best performer on my coast and on the coast of New York to Florida.

And I covered the top part of it for RocketCoin as a Bitcoin ATM distributor.

I believe I was their number one performer for how many were actually installed.

That was a surprising turn of events.

I was always more of a deep tech nerd.

I was into consensus mechanisms and stuff like this.

And then lo and behold, life gives me an opportunity to work in this industry with Bitcoin ATM machines.

Took that upon.

This time next week, moving on to issue four.

we've talked about it before Massachusetts police officer heads off Bitcoin scam targeting Maine woman let's see the quick thinking of a local police officer saved a Maine woman from depositing 11 000 in cash into a Bitcoin ATM as part of an attempted scam according to the chief administrator of the police department on Tuesday around 5 30 p.m the officer Kelly was at Astoria Avenue gas station when he was approached by a 75 year old woman who feared she may be getting scammed the woman was nervous because she was on the phone with someone claiming to be a government agent who knew personal information about her and told her she had to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM machine yay Bitcoin about her legal repercussions based upon his training Kelly was immediately suspicious and asked to speak to the person on the phone with the 75 year old but that individual hung up when the police joined the conversation we've talked about Bitcoin ATMs before how they're likely to be banned everywhere but this is Massachusetts to Maine a 75 year old woman uh Victoria what do you think about Bitcoin ATMs it's certainly all their fault and all of the scamming will disappear as soon as the atms are gone

Yeah, well, it's like blaming the tool for human deception and corruption, really.

Yeah, I mean, these scammers are everywhere.

But, you know, the the the moral decrepitude of the people who pull these scams on older, vulnerable people, I just think is disgusting.

I really do.

really don't think that normal people have any idea what these scams are like i mean as an internet type person i've been on youtube i've watched uh the youtubes where the guy goes in and he baits the scammers and he talks to them for hours and hours and hours and we know behind the scenes that these scammers are in office buildings and they have a book full of things to say a computer book of course and they they flip through the book and it's a choice based map and what do they say you say this next oh auntie you're the only one for me oh if i lose this thousand dollars my job i'll get fired and they go through this book and they have supervisors they have people monitoring them and reviewing their performance this is a job they're salesmen right they're working on scamming you the same thing for the people sending you links and sending you dirty emails and it's the bitcoin atms are not really the problem i agree we're going to get rid of them they're a bit I know we've said for a while bitcoins a bit like water right like it opens up all these problems in the Internet all these things like the Ai had all these Pat holes like this php patch we've known about it for years, but Ai made it possible to exploit it easier.

In the same way, these old people are all targets because they're vulnerable right they're weak.

At the October 26th Lansing City Council meeting, the council passed an ordinance requiring cryptocurrency ATM machines to register with the city and clearly display warnings about the nature of digital currency.

They also passed an ordinance for Supportive Housing Services, a program to help qualifying homeowners make emergency repairs to their homes by taking money from the Human Relations Community Services Department and giving it to the Economic Development and Planning Department.

There was a thorough presentation by local property management company SibTab requesting tax break payment in lieu of taxes pilot programs to continue renovations at over 400 units across four properties across the city.

I don't necessarily disagree that, you know, I'd be down to getting into subsidizing housing and building housing.

But again, it's going to be a budget issue, right? Yeah, yeah.

Next, we had a discussion of cryptocurrency ATM kiosk regulation.

So this has come through.

This has been talked about for a few meetings.

Here's what's crazy, and it was Dimitri that probably sent you that.

Name one good reason to even have a Bitcoin ATM.

Any reason at all.

There is, like, no other reason for these except to rip people off.

We're talking about a growing tactic where scammers pretend to be people that we're taught to trust, law enforcement, court officials, or government agencies.

They weaponize authority to create panic, and then they push victims towards fast, untraceable payments, like sending cash through a Bitcoin ATM.

It's frightening how convincing these scams have become.

So today, we're going to bring that reality to life through a first-hand story, understanding the psychology behind why these scams work, and most importantly, how to arm yourself with the red flags and the next steps to protect yourself.

But if they really try hard and then the government knocks them back and says, "No, you don't comply, you don't comply," then this is more of the Operation Chokepoint stuff that we've talked about before, squeezing which businesses can offer Bitcoin products.

But the, uh, silver lining is something we reported on a few months ago was AUSTRAC was trying to bring a new, uh, an amendment to the, uh, KYC/AML law in Australia to give the AUSTRAC CEO powers to ban forms of money, and the example they gave was Bitcoin ATMs because they think they're a tangible public risk to Australians.

Uh, that's the criteria.

So, so they could then ban, um, Bitcoin ATMs, and they could-

I was in a convenience store the other day, came across a Bitcoin ATM, felt very threatened, like it was-

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, re- interestingly, in the last month, AUSTRAC has required one operator.

She was on the phone with scammers, and they had her take out $40,000.

And she was driving to a gas station to put the cash into a Bitcoin ATM, and she didn't tell her husband anything.

And they were gonna lose all that money.

We drove an hour to the Bitcoin ATM because we had eyes and ears on everything and stopped it before it all happened.

She had all the cash in her, um, little envelope and was gonna go put it and send it away.

And the crazy thing is we went to the bank, and I told the bank, I'm like, "Uh, why are you guys letting this lady take out all of her money?" And the banker got, the manager got mad at me and kicked me out for saving someone that they just let get all the money taken out of her account.

All right, I have a victim for you.

She is going to bank.

The fire is the third at a well-known northern Michigan spot in recent weeks.

I'm Susan Tompor, and I'm a personal finance columnist with the Detroit Free Press.

Michigan has a shot at taking on scammers right there in the grocery, hookah shop, and gas station as efforts finally build to regulate cryptocurrency ATMs in the state.

Some thirty-five states across the nation have taken some sort of action to regulate Bitcoin ATMs as a way to protect both young and older consumers from losing their money.

That's according to the AARP's policy and government affairs experts.