Just inside the front door of a Circle K convenience store, the district manager glared at a small kiosk. Yet another elderly victim had just fed thousands of dollars into the device after being tricked by a scammer.
“I hate these machines,” the manager told police in Niceville, Florida, according to body-camera footage of the September incident. “I’d like to get them out of the stores.”
He’s not alone.
Thousands of Americans, many of them retirees on limited budgets, lost more than a quarter of a billion dollars this year to scams that fooled them into using crypto ATMs – machines that turn cash into hard-to-recover cryptocurrency.
And scores of those victims were fleeced by scammers inside stores owned by Circle K, one of the crypto ATM industry’s biggest corporate partners.
A joint investigation by CNN and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found that Circle K has made millions by renting space to crypto ATMs – even amid mounting evidence that the machines are playing a key role in international fraud schemes that exasperate local police called repeatedly to the same stores.
CNN and ICIJ reviewed more than 150 cases of crypto ATM scams at Circle K stores and spoke to 17 employees who said they witnessed – and sometimes tried to prevent – the fraud while at work, including one who saw a man attack a machine with a sledgehammer to try to retrieve his stolen money. Some said they have discussed the problem with management but have seen little response.
“Circle K policy is, ‘It’s not our machine, it’s not our problem,’ but I see it all too often,” Debbie Joy, an assistant manager in Port Orange, Florida said during a city council meeting in April in which she received an award for stopping one of the scams in progress.
Even some of Circle K’s own staffers have been duped into taking thousands from their stores’ safes and feeding the money into crypto ATMs, police reports show.
At one location in Indiana, store managers went so far as posting a prominent sign behind the register cautioning employees. “Scam Alert,” it reads: “Don’t save money in the register to drop in the Bitcoin machine.”
Circle K has alerted staffers repeatedly in emails and trainings about crypto ATM scams, multiple employees told CNN and ICIJ.
“While we train and educate our employees to recognize common and emerging financial scams, they do not handle or oversee customer transactions at self‑service cash ATMs or Bitcoin Depot terminals available in our stores, which are owned and managed solely by third parties,” a Circle K spokesperson said.
Despite all those warnings, the chain’s owner this year re-upped its deal with crypto ATM firm Bitcoin Depot. That arrangement pays Circle K rent, which can generate thousands in revenue at each store annually.
Critics and victims, including one who sued the chain last year, say Circle K is putting profits over safety.
“We really desperately at this moment need to get the plug pulled on these Bitcoin ATMs to make the scams harder,” said Nathan VanCleave, a police sergeant in Evansville, Indiana who has worked crypto-scam cases. “Right now, the roadblock is the big corporations, gas stations that are hosting these Bitcoin ATMs.”
A CNN investigation previously revealed how crypto ATM companies profit from rampant and growing scams by frequently marking up the price of cryptocurrency by 20% to 30% or more on transactions, including the illicit ones. Multiple state attorneys general and other authorities have alleged a large share of major crypto ATM firms’ transactions involve scams and that the companies have failed to protect consumers.
Those companies dispute those allegations and say they have extensive safeguards in place to protect users, such as prominent fraud warnings on their machines. Bitcoin Depot also requires IDs for transactions, provides live customer support and maintains a team that regularly assists law enforcement with investigations, the company said in a statement.
Companies like Circle K also profit to a lesser extent, with revenue from the crypto ATM industry flowing to retailers that get paid to host the machines in their stores. More than 30,000 crypto ATMs sit inside gas stations, smoke shops, grocery stores and other sites across the US, according to Coin ATM Radar, which tracks the devices.
Circle K, which hosts crypto ATMs at more than 750 of its stores, according to Bitcoin Depot records, is the company’s largest corporate partner. Circle K’s parent company operates about 7,000 US stores.
A spokesperson for Circle K said the company is committed to providing safe, secure experiences for customers.
“As cryptocurrency continues to grow in popularity, like virtually any financial instrument, it is subject to criminal scams that begin outside of retail locations, long before targets approach a crypto ATM,” the spokesperson said. “As a responsible retailer, we work closely with business partners like Bitcoin Depot to ensure their services consistently meet our standards, regulatory requirements and customers’ needs and expectations.”
Some employees of the chain, though, say Circle K is harming its own customers by keeping the machines.
“Morally, Circle K should kick them out,” Joy, the assistant manager in Florida, said in an interview. “Do the right thing.”
‘Big hit’
Last year, a pop-up on Steve Beckett’s laptop warned him his computer had been hacked. When the 67-year-old retiree called an apparent number for tech support, the people who answered spun an elaborate story that he needed to secure his accounts by transferring cash through a nearby crypto ATM.
Beckett said amid a dizzying series of instructions and demands, one detail gave him comfort – that the person directed him to a Circle K, a familiar business.
“You think everything in a convenience store is for your convenience,” Beckett told CNN.
Only after feeding $7,000 from his bank account into the crypto ATM did Beckett learn he’d been scammed.
It’s a story that’s become familiar since 2021, when Circle K and Bitcoin Depot announced a partnership.
Bitcoin Depot’s pitch to potential retail partners has been straightforward: Host the ATMs and get extra revenue as well as increased foot traffic. An archived page on the company’s website pledged the partnerships carry “Zero risk. Zero cost. Monthly revenue.”
When the company cut an exclusive deal with Circle K, Bitcoin Depot’s founder, Brandon Mintz, touted how it would help customers buy crypto “instantly in a familiar environment in their local neighborhood.”
There was also a clear benefit to the convenience store chain. At the outset, Circle K received as much as $700 a month in rent per location, according to two people familiar with the deal. That amount could vary by location and later was reduced, though many machines still brought in hundreds of dollars per month.
In comments to a trade publication the following year, a then-vice president at Circle K described the crypto ATMs as a “big hit” and added, “Feedback from customers has been well received and overwhelmingly positive.”
But the partnership also led to a wave of scams at Circle Ks – part of an exploding national trend of crypto ATM fraud.
The FBI received more than 12,000 scam complaints this year about crypto ATMs, which enable criminals to rapidly transfer stolen funds to digital wallets based in foreign countries less likely to cooperate with US law enforcement. Victims lost more than $330 million between January and November.
Police reports reviewed by CNN and ICIJ show victims have been led to Circle Ks around the country – from Atlanta and Las Vegas to small towns off interstates in the South and Midwest. Scammers stole up to tens of thousands of dollars in some cases.
The police reports reflect the variety of methods scammers used to draw victims into Circle Ks – from pretending to be tech support to posing as law enforcement or even politicians.
In August, authorities responded to a Circle K in Pace, Florida, and found an 86-year-old woman at the crypto ATM who said she had “sent money to Trump for his campaign debts.” An officer advised she had likely been scammed because “the president would not contact someone through Telegram.”
Some machines have been repeatedly used for cons. At least a dozen people in Prescott, Arizona, reported sending money to scammers at a single Circle K’s machine since last year, records show.
Police in some cities have tried warning victims in Circle Ks. After a woman in Mundelein, Illinois, lost nearly $10,000 to a scammer last year, a police officer stopped by the Circle K that housed the crypto ATM – and then found that the machine already had a warning on it from his department advising victims to beware of the fraud.
Scam victims have found limited success in suing crypto ATM firms to recover their money. Iowa’s state Supreme Court earlier this year, for instance, ruled Bitcoin Depot wasn’t liable because scammers had convinced a victim to bypass company requirements that users only send funds to crypto wallets they control.
At least one victim has turned to the courts alleging Circle K was also responsible.
Glenda Mooneyham, a South Carolina widow in her 70s, was duped into depositing $30,000 in a Bitcoin Depot ATM inside a Circle K in November 2023. She sued the store, alleging the company was “expressly aware” that the crypto ATMs were used for scams and that its employees “made no meaningful effort to intervene” to stop the incident.
A federal judge earlier this year granted motions by Circle K and Bitcoin Depot to move the matter into arbitration because Mooneyham had accepted Bitcoin Depot’s terms of service while using the machine.
Bitcoin Depot said in a statement arbitration provisions are intended to provide efficient paths to resolve individual disputes.
“Unfortunately, bad actors attempt to misuse many types of financial self-service terminals, including traditional ATMs, this issue is not unique to any one retailer. Our focus is on ensuring partners understand the safeguards in place and that customers receive consistent warnings and support designed to help prevent scams before they occur,” the statement added.
‘Nothing but problems’
The crypto ATM fraud hasn’t just terrorized victims led into Circle Ks. The company’s own staffers have been targeted as well.
In August 2021, just a few weeks after the deal with Bitcoin Depot was announced, a Circle K employee in South Carolina fielded calls from someone referencing the store’s manager by name. An important delivery was about to arrive, the scammer claimed – but the staffer would have to pay with a crypto ATM to minimize contact due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Circle K employee followed the caller’s directions, sending about $5,000 from his store’s safe to the thieves through a crypto ATM at another company’s store, according to police records.
In March, a manager in Georgia described a similar incident to police that cost her store about $1,200.
In interviews, multiple Circle K staffers expressed frustration with crypto ATMs.
“The company line is they are here for us to make money. Okay, that’s fine, but what I have seen is what I’ve seen,” said a manager in New Mexico who described witnessing “quite a few” scams. He spoke anonymously because he lacked authority to speak to the media.
Debbie Joy, the assistant manager in Port Orange, Florida, estimated that she has intervened in at least 10 crypto ATM scams. The crimes happen so often that she has saved the cell phone number of a local police investigator. She has also learned to spot the warning signs.
“It’s usually an older or elderly person on the phone with someone and has a bank envelope with them,” she said. “It’s sad really.”
Another employee at a Circle K in Colorado said, “We hate these machines. We hate having to deal with the people who use these machines. They are incredibly predatory, people get scammed on them constantly.” The employee, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, added, “We talked to management about having it removed several times. Their thing is they say it’s not their problem.”
To try to curb the issue, Circle K management has sent guidance to employees to watch out for scams involving the devices, more than a dozen staffers said.
That caution is clear in some locations. When a pair of CNN reporters approached a Bitcoin Depot machine inside a Circle K this month, a concerned employee walked up and unprompted, told them to beware of getting scammed.
Yet amid those efforts, Circle K also recommitted to its partnership with Bitcoin Depot.
In January, the company extended its contract by one year, business records show. That decision was good news for Bitcoin Depot, which said Circle K represented about a quarter of its total revenues for 2023 and 2024. The fees that Circle K earns from Bitcoin Depot per machine have fallen in recent years, two people familiar with the deal said.
Unlike Circle K, other businesses have tossed the machines due to the prevalence of fraud.
Matthieu Fortin, who heads a smoke shop called Upper Limits Midwest in Springfield, Illinois, said he signed up to host a crypto ATM from the company Coinhub, which agreed to pay his business a fee of $300 a month. He said the machine sat mostly idle for the first few weeks – but then the victims started to arrive. “Pretty much 100% of the time when someone was at the machine, they were being scammed,” Fortin said.
“The machine has brought nothing but problems,” he wrote to Coinhub in an email last year, adding that his business had turned off the ATM. In response, the company agreed to remove the device.
Bitcoin Depot took a less conciliatory approach when a grocery chain in the Midwest tried to ditch its machines.
Fareway Stores signed a deal to deploy the company’s ATMs in 66 of its grocery stores last year. About eight months later, a Fareway vice president wrote an email to Bitcoin Depot expressing alarm about fraud.
“Police departments have placed crime scene tape around the bitcoin ATMs to lock them down,” the vice president wrote. “We do not believe the Bitcoin Depot is doing everything it can to prevent fraud. Because of this, the public perception is that Fareway is not doing enough to prevent fraud or that we are at some level complicit in the fraud. This is a problem.”
In February, Fareway unplugged the Bitcoin ATMs because it said they were “instrumentalities of fraud” and asked Bitcoin Depot to come pick them up, according to court records filed by the company.
In response, Bitcoin Depot filed a lawsuit that accused the company of terminating an agreement and shutting off the machines based on “false, baseless and pretextual allegations.” The suit noted Bitcoin Depot maintains a compliance program that includes anti-money laundering efforts.
Fareway filed a counterclaim, and the parties agreed to dismiss the case in November. Fareway declined to comment for this story.
Bitcoin Depot said in a statement the matter is resolved and its machines are currently operating in Fareway Stores. Bitcoin Depot remains “committed to providing safe, compliant, and transparent services,” the statement added.
‘Weird feeling’
As state and federal authorities have expressed growing concern about fraud at crypto ATMs, businesses have continued to sign deals to host the machines in exchange for fees.
Bitcoin Depot, which operates about 8,300 crypto ATMs in the US, formed partnerships this year with a grocery network and another convenience store operator, among other businesses.
But blowback from the scam epidemic appears to be affecting the industry, especially as state lawmakers have cracked down.
At least 18 states have passed laws or rules focused on crypto ATMs and scams since 2023. The laws impose requirements such as daily transaction limits and refund obligations for fraud victims. Related bills have been proposed in states such as Florida and Texas.
Bitcoin Depot warned investors in November that the company’s revenue in the final quarter of the year would likely be down about $50 million from the previous quarter in part due to those new state regulations and its own enhanced compliance standards.
Mintz, the founder, said the company would likely move machines out of states that have passed such laws. “There’s still a lot of geography out there for us to deploy in that has not had a regulatory impact yet,” said Mintz, who will step down as CEO at the end of the year but remain executive chairman of the board, according to a company press release last month. In a statement, Bitcoin Depot called that leadership transition “a planned evolution” to align with the company’s next stage of growth.
Circle K’s deal with Bitcoin Depot expires next year, records state. It’s not clear whether they will once again re-up the partnership.
Some victims question why any company, especially a major business like Circle K, would continue to host the machines.
“These stores that these machines are in need to be held responsible,” said Beckett, the Indiana scam victim, who filed a lawsuit that accuses Bitcoin Depot of “systemically facilitating” scams. In court, Bitcoin Depot has said it’s not liable for the crimes of third-party scammers, especially given the warnings on its machines.
Dakota Root, who was conned into depositing $1,200 into a crypto ATM at a Circle K in Indiana, said the experience changed his perception of the neighborhood store.
“Every time I go by that Circle K now, I get this weird feeling in my stomach,” he said. “I don’t want to go back in there.”