TALLAHASSEE — With a law-enforcement officer citing examples of seniors getting scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars, a House panel Tuesday began moving forward with a proposal that would place regulations on “crypto ATMs.”
The issue stems from scams in which seniors are convinced to withdraw cash from banks or credit unions and put the cash into the ATMs, which are more technically called virtual currency kiosks. The cash then is converted to virtual currency and cannot be tracked.
“Once it’s converted into crypto, it’s gone,” said Rep Michael Owen, an Apollo Beach Republican sponsoring the proposal (HB 505), which was approved unanimously by the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee.
The vote came after Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Master Deputy Jeffery Merry described residents of the massive Sun City Center senior community becoming victims of scams that use crypto ATMs.
As an example, he said a 73-year-old woman withdrew $77,000 from her bank account after being convinced through a series of phone calls that her account had been hacked and that she needed to safeguard the money. She followed directions to put it into a crypto ATM at a Walgreens store and lost the money.
“That was her life savings,” said Merry, who is community resource deputy at Sun City Center. “That was what she was supposed to live off for the next two years.”
The bill, which is also sponsored by Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, is filed for the legislative session that will start Jan. 13. Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, has filed an identical Senate version (SB 198).
The proposal would take a series of steps. Including requiring owners of the kiosks to display warnings on the screens that would say, “Consumer fraud often starts with contact from a stranger. If you have been directed to this machine by someone claiming to be a government agent, bill collector, law enforcement officer or anyone you do not know personally, stop this transaction immediately and contact your financial advisor or local law enforcement.”
Also, the bill would prevent kiosk owners from allowing new customers to make more than $2,000 in transactions in a day and existing customers to make more than $10,500 in transactions in a day.
In addition, it would require providing electronic receipts for transactions and include refund requirements.
Merry said the crypto scams have replaced scams in the past that used such things as Western Union and gift cards. The bill drew support Tuesday from the senior-advocacy group AARP, the Florida Bankers Association and the Florida Credit Union Association.
Ethan McClelland, director of government relations for Bitcoin Depot, a major operator of the kiosks, called the bill a “good compromise.”
“As an industry, nobody wants to be profiting off scam activities,” he said.