Several years ago, the Evansville Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit started looking for crimes involving cryptocurrency kiosks — a then novel way of stealing money from people that has spread across the country.
Detectives saw their first fraud cases involving the machines, also called crypto ATMs, in 2022, followed by 11 such crimes in 2023, 20 in 2024, and 22 in just the first seven months of 2025.
These cases can involve any type of scam. Sometimes criminals pose as law enforcement agents with a warrant for the victim’s arrest or as a friendly stranger with an investment opportunity, says the department’s Sgt. Nathan VanCleave…