Tarrant County prosecutors are trying to keep retirees out of the crypto crosshairs after an expensive close call at a Fort Worth Bitcoin kiosk.
Today in Fort Worth, Assistant District Attorney Nathan Martin stood in front of a room of Lockheed Martin retirees and laid it out in plain English: never put cash into a crypto ATM. The talk took place less than a mile from a Bitcoin Depot kiosk, and prosecutors say the warning followed an incident in which an elderly local was tricked into depositing more than $23,000 of her savings. Martin’s message was aimed squarely at older residents who have been repeatedly targeted by impersonation scams that end at crypto kiosks.
As the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office later highlighted on X, Martin urged retirees to treat any surprise demand for cryptocurrency as a blazing red flag. The post pointed to a nearby Bitcoin Depot machine and said the office was sharing the warning after an older resident was defrauded.
NEVER put cash into a Crypto ATM.
— Tarrant County DA (@TarrantCountyDA) March 10, 2026
That was a key message ADA Nathan Martin delivered to the Lockheed Martin Association of Retirees, who met less than a mile from a BitCoin Depot ATM where an elderly victim was scammed into depositing more than $23,000 of her savings. pic.twitter.com/jOdJbd8T2U
How the scam works
Investigators say the pattern is now painfully familiar. Scammers call pretending to be bank or government officials, keep victims on the phone, and direct them to a nearby crypto kiosk where they are told to turn cash into cryptocurrency that can be moved overseas in minutes. The tactic, often described as a cryptocurrency emergency, is built on panic and isolation so that victims will not pause to contact relatives or their bank.
NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth has reported that deputies see these impersonation schemes regularly in Tarrant County, with scammers leaning on threats of arrest, frozen accounts or vanished savings to keep victims compliant all the way to the crypto machine.
A near-miss in Fort Worth and a national surge
ABC News documented a June 2024 case in the Fort Worth area in which an 85-year-old woman was coaxed into feeding more than $23,000 into a Bitcoin ATM before another customer and police stepped in. That close call, which was stopped mid-stream, shows how quickly a lifetime of savings can disappear once a transaction finishes at the kiosk.
ABC also noted that the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has recorded a sharp rise in complaints involving Bitcoin ATMs, with nearly $250 million in reported losses tied to those kiosks in 2024.
Federal prosecutors: a repeated playbook
The U.S. Department of Justice has described multiple “cryptocurrency emergency” scams in which victims in several states were ordered to deposit tens of thousands of dollars into Bitcoin Depot kiosks, followed by federal forfeiture efforts to claw back the money.
In a December 2025 press release, the U.S. Department of Justice detailed cases where victims were told to put as much as $31,000 into the machines before investigators traced and seized the funds, underscoring how often the same script is used against older Americans.
What officials recommend
Prosecutors and consumer advocates are urging people to hang up immediately on anyone who demands payment in cryptocurrency, to verify any claimed government agency or company by dialing an independent phone number, and to refuse to feed cash into any ATM or kiosk under instructions from a caller.
The Dallas Morning News has outlined additional steps, including contacting your bank directly, filing complaints with regulators and noting that lawmakers in some states have moved to limit or regulate the kiosks.
Martin’s blunt rule of thumb, per the Tarrant County DA, “Never put cash into a crypto ATM,” is meant to give retirees a simple line they can remember if a scammer ever calls. If you or someone you know has been targeted, local prosecutors say to contact law enforcement, and federal authorities advise filing a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.
