You may have noticed fewer cryptocurrency kiosks in Wisconsin following a recent state law restricting their use. Wisconsin Consumer Protection director Mike Domke says it’s not surprising, given that their primary use was fraud.
“I will say that the intent of the legislation was not to make them go away, but it was to certainly add a protective measure for consumers and really limit the losses that we’ve been seeing where scammers are exploiting these devices for their financial gain.”
Domke says the state stepped in after those booths made it much easier to send scammers money.
“We saw it begin when crypto really kind of came out and we’re doing it through mostly exchanges online. And that was a little bit challenging because they had to walk their targets through how to log in, how to create a wallet, all these things. While these kiosks made it much, much easier.”
The new law requires warnings about possibly being scammed to be posted when you start a transaction with the device, and to restrict their daily use to just one thousand dollars.
Raymond Neupert, Reporter/Anchor