Brand Smith did not know what a cryptocurrency ATM was before it was aimed at entering more than $ 12,000 in cash for two cars last year as part of a complex cyber -amer.
The 76-year-old pensioner Kalgary suffered a stroke a few months before, which, according to her, influenced her cognitively.
“They are so convincing, and, unfortunately, I was vulnerable,” Smith said.
“He went through what to do, and therefore, of course, I just invested money and never thought about it.”
Crypto -banks can look very similar to a traditional banking machine, but instead of getting cash from your bank account, most of these machines allow customers to pay cash, and then convert it into cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin. Then they can send it to a virtual wallet anywhere in the world.
Smith has no idea where her money turned out to be.
“It was destructive, although it was only $ 12,000,” she said. “When you are a senior on retirement, this is a lot of money.”
A The first ATM in the history of Crypto was installed in a small cafe in Vancouver Back in 2013. At that time, the car was proclaimed a pioneer for innovation, offering a quick, affordable way to buy a crypto. About 3600 cryptographic ATMs and more than 39,000 around the world, a dozen dozen throughout the country – and the authorities have fears about how cars are used and by whom.
Watch | The CBC investigation discloses why cryptographic ATMs are so popular for scammers:
According to the federal report, Crypto Acts is the main way that fraudsters receive money from Canadians. Angelina King from CBC and Farra Meari plunge into a problem in a series of three parts of fraud with feeding: crypto-bancom.
CBC News spent months, studying this industry, talking with law enforcement agencies, financial regulatory bodies, cryptocurrency experts, former company employees in crypto banking meters, operators and victims of fraud themselves for this fraud in a series of three parts: Crypto-Bankomat.
The investigation showed that these machines that work legally in Canada became the main scammers used to receive money from fraud victims throughout the country. The Canadian financial intelligence agency, FinTRAC, came to this conclusion in February 2023 to analyze suspicious reports on transactions submitted by the agency.
“Judges Fintrac that Bitcoin Automated Taller Machines (Batms) will remain the main method that internal and international criminals of fraud will be used to receive funds from their victims and laundering these income as part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem,” the CBC News report, recently received on the request to information.
“It is very likely that the number of Canadian victims aimed at organized fraud networks located in other countries will continue to grow. Criminal groups are developing innovative and complex fraud campaigns aimed at directing Canadians in the placement of funds in BETM. ”
ATMs are legal, but operated
Despite these conclusions, FinTRAC does not monitor which companies drive these machines, how much they work or where they are in Canada. Instead, crypto-banking materials operators are classified as a “business service business”, an appointment that includes foreign exchange dealers, regular ATMs and money transfer services such as Western Union.
CBC News requested an interview with the Fintrac head for this series, but was rejected in the request. The written response of the financial intelligence agency did not answer CBC questions that, in any case, Fintrac made to conclude conclusions in his two -year report.
Instead, the agency provided statistics on the disclosure of financial information that it provided for the investigations of law enforcement agencies last year, and included legal obligations of money maintenance enterprises.
In accordance with this designation, crypto-bancomatic companies should register in FinTRAC and are subject to the federal law on the fight against money laundering, which requires them to submit reports for large cash transactions, suspicious transactions and follow the rules of your client (KYC), such as a person’s personality check of more than $ 1,000. But there are no rules governing certain aspects of the industry, such as fees that operators can levy or limit the size of customer transactions.
Available to statistics “Iceberg end”
The main police officers, such as RCMP, OPP and Toronto police, do not track how much they have reported in fraud, is connected using crypto -sports ATMs.
The only national group of law enforcement agencies containing this statistics seems to be a Canadian center against fraud (CAFC). The victims of fraud reported the loss of 14.2 million dollars. The United States for fraud through crypto -banks in 2024, and this year losses to exceed, which in the first three months of 2025 reported more than $ 4.2 million. USA.
But these numbers are delivered with large reservations. According to CAFC, it is reported only about five to 10 percent of fraud incidents.
And his statistics usually do not include police reports. They definitely do not include reports on the Toronto or OPP police, the Toronto Children's police reported. David Cofffie.
“They are the top of the iceberg – literally – I mean that their tip may not yet get out of the water,” said Cofffie, who works in the financial crime department.
“They need to multiply by 10 or 20 to get a vague sense of real damage.”
Daily fraud reports with crypto sports ATMs
The detective says that the Toronto police receives fraud reports with the participation of crypto -banking materials per day, and the problems that investigated these cases can be “insurmountable”.
“As soon as this has been sent, this money around the world,” he said. “Not only that, but bad guys are located all over the world … Basically, we have no resources or authority, jurisdiction to return this money or bring these people to the account. And this is really really sad, regret to say. ”
Cofffie and others in Canadian and international law enforcement agencies reported CBC News Crypto Batms as a tool for receiving money in most vultures, from fraud with romantic fraud to imitation, such as CRA fraud.
“There was a noticeable increase in the use of crypto -bancomers to carry out these crimes,” said the sergeant. Gordi Jones, National Cryptocurrency Coordinator for RCMP.
Part of this trend may be associated with the spread as a result of the convenience of these machines.
Most of the crypto of ATMs per capita
Currently, in Canada in the world there is the most crypto-bancom per capita, in which almost 91 per million inhabitants and the second largest number of cars (behind the USA) for the country, according to TRM Labs, the Blockchain intelligence company.
From the beginning of this year to mid-August, the company discovered that almost 1.5 billion dollars are processing crypto banking materials in Canada.
TRM connected about 160,000 US dollars with illegal activities, displaying purse for cryptocurrency, which were associated with fraud and other forms of laundering. But the global head of the company's policy says that this is probably part of the true amount.
“The numbers are probably significantly higher, potentially 85 percent higher than what we see,” said Ari Redborn. “The task is the problem with the reporting that all law enforcement agencies around the world arise – and this is such a terribly underestimated problem.”
So why did crypto -sport become such an attractive tool for scammers?
Experts in this area say that attractiveness depends on convenience and speed.
“People can now send money transfers, humanitarian aid, cross-border and in large quantities than ever before,” Redborn said. “Nevertheless, the task is more actors, now they can also move the means of cross-border trips at the speed of the Internet.”
Andreas Park, Professor of Finance at the University of Toronto and co -founder of his research laboratory, indicates accessibility: cars do not require customers to use a bank account and rarely use the authentication process that is different from transactions of less than 1000 US dollars.
“The low barrier of their use and access to crypto -actes is exactly what makes it easier for crime,” the park said.
According to Cofffie, the combination of these factors and the lack of a person’s interaction in transactions makes cars attractive for scammers, as well as knowledge gap when it comes to victims.
“They are not evil in themselves, but this is a tool used by scammers to facilitate fraud,” the detective said about the crypto -banking materials. “This is easy, it is fast, it is irreversible … And they really, really hunt vulnerable communities that do not understand what cryptocurrency is.”
In the case of Smith, a 76-year-old teenager did not understand that she was deceived until she told her daughter, and then her daughter examined her finances.
“I just felt so stupid,” Smith said. “As if someone entered the house and just took me.”
Tomorrow: The second part of the fraud with feeding: the problem of crypto -bancomata will delve into the companies behind these cars in Canada, how they make a profit, and what they are doing to try to prevent fraud.
