Australian banks back move to ban crypto ATMs in fresh crackdown

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Crypto ATMs have grown in popularity and number over the years, but so have the concerns around their use for crypto transactions. 

A press release by the Australian Banking Association (ABA) on 16 October says banks are in support of a total ban on high-risk machines as crypto scams through them have skyrocketed recently. 

The rise ATM scams

Crypto ATMs work like regular ones, only they are used to buy and sell crypto instead of fiat currencies. 

Since their introduction, more crypto investors have turned to them for easy crypto trading, but they have become a popular way for scammers and money launderers.

In response, the Home Affairs minister Tony Burke is proposing new powers to enable AUSTRAC deal with the situation. 

In solidarity, the ABA said the new powers to ban high-risk cryptocurrency ATMs and expand access to Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) checks by banks will support efforts to protect Australians from scams.

ABA CEO Simon Birmingham said cryptocurrency ATMs play a key role in helping criminals to launder money and also steal from unsuspecting victims.

“Banning or more tightly regulating crypto ATMs will help close off a channel that criminals exploit to launder money and funnel money from scams. Every dollar that an Australian is coerced into feeding into a crypto ATM is a dollar fed into a black hole from which there is virtually no means to help scam victims get their money back.”

Interestingly, ATMs are just one way through which scammers steal money from their victims. A more popular way that has not gotten much attention is the hack of large social media accounts.

Earlier today, scammers hacked at least three different gaming channels on YouTube to promote memecoin scams.

Finding a way to protect crypto investors holistically will be difficult, but getting a solution for such hacks will make a big difference.