LAYTON, Utah — An increase in cryptocurrency schemes has the Layton Police Department cracking down, with hopes to protect more people in the community with new measures.
Cryptocurrency ATMs or Bitcoin Teller Machines can be found across the state.
Anola Johnson didn’t know much about them... until 2024.
“It’s just flying under the radar because the only people who know about this are the ones who have been scammed," she said. "I never heard about these things until I got scammed, and not many others have.”
In a matter of two years, Johnson was scammed twice. Now, she works to help prevent situations what happened to her from happening to others. Layton Police have reported about $2 million in fraud-related losses related to cryptocurrency between 2021 and 2025.
"So our investigators, through the city council, came up with this idea for removing the primary tool in these scams, which are the physical kiosks,' explained Lt. Clint Bobrowski.
Layton Police are not banning cryptocurrency; instead, they’re just removing the 18 machines that are in use in the city. They’ve tried educating the public on the issue, but continue to see cases on their desk.
Lt. Bobrowski says scammers call people and convince them to deposit money into those machines.
“It’s heartbreaking when they come in and they’ve lost a substantial amount of money," said Bobrowski. "It’s easy to say there’s a certain demographic of this population, but the reality is this scam affects everyone.”
Layton Mayor Joy Petro says nobody in her community deserves to be taken advantage of.
“Especially when they get into the mind games and playing with these folks on the phone, and they talk to them and convince them that they’re going to win a million dollars or you have a relative in jail and we need you to get them out,” said the mayor.
All existing machines in Layton need to be removed within 60 days.
“Is this going to stop all scams, no," said Johnson. "But it’s going to put a speed bump in there so that older folks like myself are not wittingly directed there."
