Tens of thousands of francs in losses Fraudsters use crypto ATMs for money laundering
Crypto ATMs, such as those often found in Zurich, are legal. Criminals are increasingly taking advantage of the fact that they can be used to quickly remove money from the country - at the expense of unsuspecting victims.
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- Criminals are increasingly using crypto ATMs to launder money.
- The machines can be used to get money out of the country in a matter of minutes.
- Unsuspecting victims are also defrauded of their money using this method by being tricked into depositing money into one of the machines under false pretenses.
- The criminals use little tricks to circumvent security measures.
- In Zurich, where there are a particularly large number of crypto ATMs, damage amounting to tens of thousands of francs has been caused in this way.
Criminals have discovered crypto ATMs as a simple method of money laundering. In Zurich, the Swiss city where most of the machines are located alongside Geneva, tens of thousands of francs have been lost.
The Tagesanzeiger newspaper reports on a scam using the example of a senior citizen who was convinced by strangers to withdraw 12,000 francs and deposit it in a machine she did not know.
The fraudsters claimed to be police officers who informed her about a data leak at her bank. After contacting her by telephone, they accompanied the woman to the post office, where she withdrew the money. They explained that it had to be paid into another account otherwise it would disappear.
Protective measures can be circumvented
Of the 12,000 francs, 1000 francs were withheld, as the receipts prove. This is presumably the reward of the man who carried out the fraud. He had introduced himself as "Denis" and has since been arrested. He is currently at large, but the criminal proceedings are still ongoing. The organization behind the fraud is probably operating from Turkey.
There are actually protective measures in place to prevent such cases of fraud. For example, there is a limit of 1,000 francs per transaction via a crypto machine. Anyone who exchanges more than 1,000 francs within 30 days must identify themselves. However, the fraudsters circumvent these measures by simply depositing sums of less than 1,000 francs several times and using a different Swiss cell phone number each time.
In the case of the 85-year-old senior citizen, "Denis" also used this method until he kept the last 1,000 francs for himself. The woman then became skeptical. When she was asked to withdraw another 8,000 francs, she refused. "It comforts me that the fraudsters at least didn't get this money," she told the Tagesanzeiger newspaper.
In total, "Denis", a 44-year-old Swiss man, is said to have scammed at least 25,000 francs. The presumption of innocence applies.
