A representation of cryptocurrency Bitcoin is seen in this illustration taken August 6, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
(Reuters) -Australia's financial crimes monitoring agency said on Wednesday that it has identified 90 scam victims, money mules and suspected offenders as the top crypto ATM users in the country, amid efforts to address crimes enabled by digital currency.
A nationwide operation led by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) examined the most prolific crypto ATM users in each state, and based on the transaction values, identified cases likely linked to scams or fraud.
"We suspected that a large volume of crypto ATM transactions were probably illicit, but disturbingly, our law enforcement partners found that almost all of the transactions we referred involved victims rather than criminals," AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said.
In one instance, AUSTRAC identified a woman in her 70s who had deposited more than A$430,000 into crypto ATMs after falling victim to romance and investment scams.
Earlier this month, AUSTRAC had placed conditions and limits on crypto ATM providers after flagging compliance concerns, with the number of active machines exceeding 1,800.
Lately, the Australian corporate regulator has been cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges as well, with Binance and Blockchain Global coming under scrutiny.
(Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
