The Attorney General’s office in Washington, DC, has filed a Crypto ATM operator Athena Bitcoin, who is said to be charged with unspecified fees on deposits that the company knows tied to scams and failed to put adequate anti-fraud protection in the area.
DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb It is said On Monday that 93% of Athena deposits in its first five months were the “direct result of the scams” and criticized the policy without a refund of the company, which said that prevented victims from recovering the alleged unspecified fees and losses in the scam.
“Athena knows that its machines are especially used by scammers are still choosing to look at other ways so that it can continue to cultivate massive hidden transaction fees.”
It comes in the middle of a broader cracker in crypto ATMs, with the report of the FBI almost 11,000 complaints of fraud It came from Kiosks in 2024, reaching over $ 246 million in losses. At least 13 states, including Arizona, Colorado and Michigan, implemented transaction limits to reduce the potential impact of Crypto ATM fraud.
Athena did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Athena allegedly earned six figures from unspecified fees
In court filing, Schwalb’s office It is said Athena charged consumer fees of up to 26% per transaction without “clearly disclosed them at any point in the process.”
The office argued that Athena users were misleading by identifying a “transaction service margin” in service terms, where “fee” was not mentioned.
Athena is charged to engage in fraudulent and unfair trading skills, as well as violation of laws aimed at protecting weak adults and the adults from abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.
According to the Attorney General’s office, Athena said “pocketed hundred -thousand -dollars to unspecified fees” from scam victims, many of them were weak or elderly, in its first five months of operating the DC between May and September 2024.
The median age of the victims was 71, while the median loss per transaction was $ 8,000, according to the filing, claiming a DC resident who lost $ 98,000 from a scam that was facilitated by an Athena kiosk.
Schwalb’s office claimed that Athena had “ineffective supervision,” which it said to create an “unnoticed pipeline for forbidden transactions in international fraud.”
“Athena has allowed and benefited from transactions in which the victims are forced, misled, and manipulated in depositing their livelihood of Athena’s machines under fraudulent pretensions.”
Steps to avoid being scammed with crypto ATMs
To protect itself from Schwalb described as “predatory conduct,” Crypto ATM users should not send funds To a person they have never met, especially if it is in a random person they have been in touch with.
Related: Tasmanian police find top 15 crypto ATM users are scam victims
Scammers usually present themselves as a crypto tech support specialist, claiming the victim’s funds may be at risk, or a businessman who promises to help them make outsized income a little without risk.
The encounters of random requests should refrain from responding to them and contacting the institution or the person they claim to represent through official channels.
There is currently 26,850 crypto ATMs In the US, According to In Coinatmradar. The Bitcoin Depot owns the largest part of the machines at 27.6%, followed by Coinflip and Athena at 13.6%and 13%, respectively.
The banking industry is irritating to unspecified charge scandals
Failure to reveal fees, such as DC’s attorney’s claim, has history a Practical issue In the banking industry.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ordered the Discover Bank to return to around $ 1.2 billion in fees overcharged to customers in April, while Wells Fargo was ordered in December 2022 to pay $ 3.7 billion worth of fine after it was found to impose illegal fees and interest charges.
The Bank of America was also ordered to pay more than $ 250 million for the charge of “junk fees” in 2023.
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