Bitcoin ATM
Bitcoin ATM has been named in 2 documented digital harm incidents. The most common harm domain is Fraud & Financial.
Documented Incidents
2Ringleader sentenced to 20 years for $73.6 million romance‑fraud and money‑laundering scheme
A 42‑year‑old man, Daren Li, was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison for leading a romance‑fraud operation that laundered about $73.6 million from elderly victims. The scheme used dating and professional platforms such as BLK, Tinder, CashApp and Bitcoin ATMs to convince victims like Kate Kleinert, Beth Hyland and Jackie Crenshaw to send gift cards, loans and cryptocurrency. Federal agents from the FBI and the FTC highlighted the case as an example of the growing link between romance scams and larger crypto‑money‑muling operations, which have caused severe financial and emotional harm to victims.
Chinese couple charged with laundering $9 million from pig butchering romance scam victims
Federal officials are targeting Feng Chen and Tianqiong Xu, a Chinese couple accused of a $9.5 million cryptocurrency "pig butchering" scam that affected at least 120 victims, primarily of Chinese heritage, across the United States. The couple operated from their home in Frisco, Texas, from January 2021 to January 2024, using fake apps and online records to trick victims into investing in cryptocurrency. In June 2024, a federal grand jury in Vermont indicted them for wire fraud and money laundering. The couple fled to China in late 2023, days after an FBI search of their home, leaving behind over $6 million in cryptocurrency. One victim in Vermont reportedly lost $600,000 after liquidating their retirement account. The FBI and Secret Service had been investigating the scam since 2021.