AUSTRAC Fines Crypto ATM Operator as Scam Concerns Grow

Australia’s financial crimes watchdog has fined a second crypto ATM provider in a widening crackdown on machines increasingly linked to money laundering and scams, the country’s ABC News reported.

AUSTRAC on Thursday imposed a $56,340 fine on Queensland-based Cryptolink, citing failures to report large cash transactions and inadequate risk controls. Under the enforcement action, Cryptolink must hire a third party to evaluate its cash-transaction controls, transactional reporting, and the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing risk assessments.

In a statement cited by ABC News, Cryptolink acknowledged the AUSTRAC enforcement and said it is cooperating to strengthen internal systems. “We regret the shortcomings,” the company said, “but this outcome reflects a fair and constructive engagement with the regulator.”

The penalty is part of a broader enforcement effort by AUSTRAC, which recently imposed tighter rules on crypto ATM operators, including a $5,000 daily customer limit. Still, around 200 new machines have appeared since July, bringing the national total to over 2,000, up from just 23 in 2019, ABC reported.

For 72-year-old Perth pensioner Dorothy Dyall, the penalties are cold comfort, the news agency said. In April, she lost her entire $12,500 life savings to scammers posing as Microsoft technicians who claimed her computer was used for criminal activity.

“I was told someone had accessed child pornography through my computer,” Dyall said, according to the ABC report. “They told me to withdraw cash and deposit it into a crypto ATM in my local supermarket.”

The scammers told her they needed her help to investigate the matter and then coached her through the process over hours of phone calls, instructing her to lie to bank staff and avoid suspicion. By the time she got home, she realized it was a scam, she told the news outlet.

AUSTRAC says crypto ATMs are a growing money-laundering loophole, often used in scams involving romance fraud, fake investments, extortion, and money-mule recruitment.

According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Australians lost an estimated $3 million to crypto ATM scams in the year to January 2025. Authorities believe the real number is much higher, ABC said.