Sandy Springs will now regulate all ATMs and BTMs (bitcoin teller machines) at convenience stores and other locations to cut down on millions of dollars in fraud.
“What’s happening is our citizens of Sandy Springs are being preyed upon. And it can be any type of scam,” Police Chief Ken DeSimone told the Sandy Springs City Council Tuesday night.
DeSimone said when he spoke to some of his officers before the meeting began, they shared reports of residents losing more than $100,000 to fraud. In Sandy Springs, millions of dollars have been taken from residents through fraud, he said.
DeSimone said one example of a scam is a resident gets a call saying they’ve missed a court date or jury duty. The resident being scammed will be told to get rid of the problem they should go to a BTM and put U.S. dollars into it, convert it to cryptocurrency and send that to an address. Once that’s done the funds are gone, usually overseas.
As of Dec. 3, the Sandy Springs Police Department had received 603 fraud reports, DeSimone said. The cryptocurrency fraud reports reached 267 for the first 11 months of the year. A staff report to the city council said cryptocurrency fraud losses averaged $10,000 each.
The detective who brought the problem to DeSimone’s attention told him one of the biggest ways to prevent this fraud is to put up a sign by the BTMs telling people law enforcement will never require anyone to put money into a cryptocurrency ATM.
DeSimone confirmed for Councilmember John Paulson that the cryptocurrency isn’t fraudulent.
“It’s the taking of the U.S. currency and converting it to crypto and then sending it to a bad guy,” DeSimone said. “It’d be the same thing as taking cash, getting a money order, and then mailing it. But because it’s crypto, there’s no way to trace that money.”
The police chief said the criminals usually claim to be law enforcement to put fear into the victim.
The city council approved a resolution to require all ATMs and BTMs at non-state banking licensed locations to be registered with the city and to post a sign warning about fraud. The police department will educate the businesses about the new regulations.