San Diego is moving to put warning labels on every cryptocurrency ATM in the city, a step City Council President Joe LaCava says is aimed squarely at protecting older residents from a scam that has drained hundreds of millions of dollars from victims nationwide.
A council committee voted unanimously this week to advance the ordinance, which would require crypto ATM operators across Central San Diego and beyond to post signage warning customers about common scam tactics and pointing them to a city website with fraud-prevention resources and a place to report suspicious activity.
The numbers behind the push are striking. State data cited by LaCava shows San Diego has 111 cryptocurrency ATMs spread across 75 locations, and nearly half of those machines, 55 in all, sit inside just 24 Safeway and Albertsons stores. City staff who went out to verify the list found discrepancies between where machines were reported and where they actually turned up, underscoring how quickly this corner of the local retail landscape has grown with little oversight.
The scam itself follows a familiar script: a caller claims a bank account has been compromised or a prize is waiting, then walks the victim through feeding cash into a nearby crypto ATM. Once the funds convert to cryptocurrency and move, they are almost impossible to claw back. According to AARP California, adults 60 and older accounted for roughly two-thirds of the $389 million lost to crypto ATM scams nationwide last year, or about $259 million.
For San Diego business owners, this is worth watching even if you don’t operate a machine yourself. Grocery stores, convenience shops, laundromats, and check-cashing storefronts across the city host these kiosks as a side source of foot traffic and fees, and any of them could soon face new signage requirements. LaCava pointed to Omaha, Nebraska, where a similar warning-sign law is credited with cutting scam losses significantly, as the model San Diego hopes to follow.
“Stopping scams before they take place is critical,” LaCava said. Whether that means one more sign by the register or a broader look at who’s renting counter space to these machines, it’s a reminder that even a small storefront can end up in the middle of a citywide policy fight.
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