In June 2024, when Fran Bates entered a Fort Worth-area gas station, she thought the voice on the other end of the phone was from her bank, and she thought a machine where she was in the process of feeding more than $23,000 would keep her money safe.

Neither was true.

The voice belonged to a scammer, and experts believe the call was likely made from overseas. The machine was a bitcoin ATM kiosk -- one of more than 45,000 across the country. And on that summer day in Texas, the 85-year-old Bates became one of the tens of thousands of Americans who fall victim each year to scams perpetrated using bitcoin ATMs.

"It's a horrible, horrible experience," Bates recalled in a recent interview with ABC News' Jay O'Brien.

The scammer convinced Bates that she was in danger of losing her savings,

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