News

Stephanie Tonkin, CEO Consumer Action Law Centre

An edited version published in the Sunday Herald Sun 9 Nov 2025

You may have seen a crypto ATM sitting in your local post office, fuel station or grocery store. When you begin to notice these note guzzling machines – you see them everywhere and with 1782 country-wide, Australia is now home to the third highest number in the world.

While they might look like just another innocent way to ‘invest’, what we are hearing from people who call our frontlines is that they are a focal point for serious financial crimes like scams and causing real harm.

According to AUSTRAC reports, the majority of users of crypto ATMs are over 50 with the 60-70 age group a major cohort. That’s a big red flag as baby boomers represent only 6% of investors in crypto currency in the general population. Why are older Australians using these machines and what for?

The sad truth is that scammers are innovating to circumvent restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions to protect customers from scams and fraud. Instead, scammers are grooming their victims to believe they are investing using these machines. Victims are withdrawing cash from their accounts and then walking to these crypto ATMs to convert their funds into an exchange.

Here’s the rub: there are no checks whatsoever for transfers less than $5k and very limited ones for anything over $5k. Once your money is fed into a crypto ATM, it is virtually untraceable and just disappears. What’s more, the people who are legitimately investing in crypto aren’t going near these ATMs. They’re tech savvy and transacting online – and why would they when the fees and charges are astronomical.

AUSTRAC says it suspects Australia’s crypto ATMs are rife with money laundering and scams. They usually charge between 15-17 percent per transaction, plus a flat charge of $3-4. They also take in vastly more money than they give out. AUSTRAC has projected that of the $275 million in transactions annually, 99 percent was deposits.

We have assisted victims who have been devasted by crypto ATM scams. They are heartbreaking stories of people carefully groomed and trained over many months, who believe they are ‘investing’ their life savings, when in reality is they are being robbed in broad daylight, and sometimes at their local store.

The evidence is overwhelming as it is disturbing, and what I find infuriating is that trusted household names, the likes of AusPost, BP, Foodworks and many others host these machines in-store, bringing instant credibility to what is simply a business front for financial crimes.

Tony Burke, Minister for Home Affairs, recently announced he was giving AUSTRAC new powers to restrict or prohibit ‘high-risk transactions’ on crypto ATMs, part of a broader strategy to limit the ways scammers launder their ill-gotten gains. This is a positive step, but let’s be frank, there is no legitimate use case for crypto ATMs. I am calling on the Minister and AUSTRAC to ensure they are banned outright before millions more are lost.

Other countries have already acted because of similar concerns. Crypto ATMs are banned in New Zealand, the UK, India and China. Even the United States, which has the highest number of crypto ATMs in the world, is now moving to significantly tighten regulations.

We have the Scam Prevention Framework – some say the most comprehensive anti-scam laws in the world – in the works, but its implementation could be years away. We can’t wait while these laws are sitting on the shelf awaiting Government to get moving on writing the rules and enforceable codes.  There’s a simple fix to this problem. Crypto ATMs have no legitimate use case. They must not be allowed to escape scrutiny, and the Government should act immediately to combat the harm they cause – this is low hanging fruit.

ENDS

Media contact:  Mark Pearce  mark@consumeraction.org.au  Tel: 0413 299 567