Bitcoin Forum

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/audvvi/our_atm_was_robed_the_other_week_luckily_no/

After reading this thread I have two questions in my mind:
1. What if the robber hacks and takes off all fund from ATM?
2. Why ATM's when they are so risky?

1. Then bad luck for the ATM operator. The users should be just fine. It's not the user funds that would be stolen.
2. They are not risky at all. Why you use the car since it's so risky? Why you ever leave home? And they are pretty much anonymous, especially for buying crypto. The only downside for the users are the pretty big fees.

This is a bad signal for them. The location of the ATM wasn't secured. I don't understand why an ATM will be placed in an unsecured environment, luckily for them according to the report, they had withdrawn the cash from the ATM before the attack, another thing that make them feel much pain is that: they are new on the business and have no insurance cover.

Then it will be shouldered by the operator of the ATM. No funds will be lost to the ATM users at all, though their data might somehow be at risk of being compromised though I doubt that the said scenario would be possible given the preventive measures they are taking when their machines are compromised by hackers or robbers.


ATMs per se aren't risky. Their locations on an area, together with their surrounding area is what makes it risky to use them. Have you ever learned about ATMs inside malls or heavily-guarded areas being robbed or hacked? If so, those are extremely isolated cases, compared to ATMs that are located in the middle of nowhere with little to no police visibility and low foot traffic.

Yeah that same questions runs to my mind that they know ATM carries money and yet they put in none strategic place?
How did the attackers easily make that action if they had enough security for that ATM and also the users?well this will serve a lesson to learn and for sure the ATM operators now will make necessary action to prevent this from happening again

You didn't understand my analogy with the cars. The point was that there are a lot of car accidents every day. That doesn't make the cars unsafe.
In the same way one robbed ATM (or more) doesn't make them unsafe.


Now about anonymous buying. I bought Bitcoin in the past from an ATM and it went like this: I entered some data, basically how much Bitcoin I want to buy and where I want them to be sent, I've put in a number of banknotes (fiat, cash) and that was all. It was long ago so I don't know the steps clearly and in order, but it was anonymous.
On the other hand, if you buy from home, you probably use bank transfer (maybe I'm wrong!) to send the money, which means you gave up anonymity.

They are lucky the cash on the ATM machine is already withdrawn and the only casualty is the ATM machine its self according to their Reddit post, but it is still a terrible thing to happen for people that just wanted to make a clean business. :(

https://i.imgur.com/4e3cfAy.jpg

Anyways here is the picture they posted on Reddit, their ATM machine being jeopardized by some criminals.

I think a CCTV camera will be handy with this kind of business and the location of the ATM should be also considered and find a good place with good security, money is a hot thing to criminals and they will surely do anything to get it.

Well the place where they had put the ATM maybe isn't secure and doesn't have CCTV's in the vicinity, I suggest putting the ATM at a place where there are people that may come and look upon the ATM any moment they need to, I think the best place will be any establishments that had many people every day just like the mall, so there will be a big chance that it will not happen again Well I think this can be prevented if there are security personnel around and just like what the owner has said in the Reddit article Buy with insurance so you may feel secure when a thing like this may happen again.

I'm fairly sure they're not straightforward to hack. If it were, we'd have seen a mass wave of this. I don't actually know how Bitcoin ATMs work in-depth, but if I were to operate one, I would make sure that it doesn't house any sensitive steal-able data like private keys. It would simply be an interface, and whatever signing is done should be done off-site.


I don't think one incidence of theft makes it inherently risky. Regular ATMs basically have the same risk. Either way, users don't actually risk anything in this scenario because it's not their money. Operators risk it because, well, it's a way to make money.

This terrible thing happens all the time in the real world even with non-bitcoin ATMs. There is plenty of compilations in YT where different rednecks pulling out ATMs from the walls with their cars or just trying to break it with a crowbar.


I'm curious about this thing:

If owners say something like that then it sounds like there was a threat of losing their BTC. I always thought that BTC should remain safe  somewhere in the wallet with no chance for any other users to access it from ATM... or not?

Damn. One thing that almost anyone agrees on is that people can do anything for money sometimes no matter what. This is not the first time I am hearing about these incidents.

The way they vandalized the ATM goes to show their savagery here. Absolutely pathetic. The ATM itself in orange and black looks pretty cute too.

They're only anonymous up until a certain threshold. The ATM in my city lets you buy without KYC (verification of identity documents) for a pretty big limit (10k EUR according to its own info) but it's generally a few thousand in most places. Not sure about how it is in USA, I imagine it's much lower.

Also, depending on the ATM, and the city, buying from an ATM can, I believe link your coins to the provider, so there's also that slight compromise in privacy.

The fees, of course, is the most obvious pain point.

The picture I am seeing is looking like what can easily be carried away without stress. Security is the main thing to consider before installing ATM in any where. ATM in my country is usually install where there is security agent protecting it.

Yeah it is possible but the possibility of the crypto atm that will be hacked is only small percentage. Observe the atm's in our society, it is high secured so I think that crypto atms are not risky after all.

Looking at the picture, it seems like, this machine was deployed in a place where people dont usually visit. I dont know but this kind of incident is very hard for the criminals to execute in the middle of the city. Common cases in ATM robbery is, forcing someone who just had cash withdrawal to hand over the money or being shot dead, or stab to death.
Neverthless, this doesnt hinder the continuous spread of Bitcoin ATM's around the world.

The guy who posted on reddit is right, everyone who's wanting to start a crypto ATM business should secure their ATM's by having and availing an insurance. I have known some people who shared the same advice.

Good to know that no money was stolen to them but the cost for creating a crypto ATM is quite expensive too.

This depends on the location, if it was placed to an unsecured place 24/7 it's really prone to stealing. But if you will place it to malls or something that has better security, it's not risky at all.

An investment in a bitcoin ATM should be seen as risky as any other investment - most businesses fail for one reason or another. These are at risk of being vandalized or broken into to take cash and possibly bitcoin, though I imagine taking bitcoin from them would be quite a challenge.

Hackers try the best to get some funds for them. Now the focus has got turned towards the ATM as it is getting more popularity around the globe. How the funds would have got stolen, ATM machine was shifted, damaged and thrown away from the respective position. Now the funds were in the hands of the robbers.

Well, at least they took all the cash out, but it still sucks that the machine was badly damaged.
I hope they at least have camera footage of the perpetrators, so there's a small chance that they'll find them.

The worst part is that they literally broke this machine for no reason :-/

Thieves, unfortunately, are everywhere. Bitcoin had a hardware to rob the ATM. Fortunately, they got rid of cheap. I hope get well soon.

Well!!! this happens even with the ATM machines too, thieves are everywhere in the world as they are very proactive when it comes to their business ;D ;D ;D this will not impact on any investor I guess. We need to be careful and take care of our selfs. Guys who are planning for Crypto machine business need to be very careful here.

The robber don't need to be a hacker to drain all the btc ballance, if they can access to the cash box then they can use the same $100 bill to drain all the btc from the ATM.

And the ATM are a risk business, that's why banks invest millions each year in their ATM's security, but in this picture we can see how insecure was this one, you can even grab it and run with it!
Image: https://i.imgur.com/BBh89tr.jpg

ATM machines are often located in areas that are unsafe because it is the criminals that are using it most. Bitcoins are not easy to trace and so ATMs are perfect for simple anonymous trading

You can buy Bitcoin ATM malware for $25,000 in the Dark Web
https://www.zdnet.com/article/you-can-buy-bitcoin-atm-malware-for-25000-in-the-dark-web/

It doesnt help that there is malware for cheap on the Dark Web.
I would think theres more then 25,000$ in these ATMS to make it worth the effort from hackers. 

actually the concept of a bitcoin atm is good because it makes simple money withdrawals or transfers. but all of them must have risks like the news above, there are atm bitcoin that are robed. however, besides the bitcoin atm, the fiat atm, there must also be news that the ATM is robed

Robbing Bitcoin ATM machine was not a new one because these ATM are more like our fiat ATM. Installation of inbuilt cameras will help in the fight against theft and hack. The Bitcoin ATM machine company should work out modalities to ensure that investors fund are kept secure and also, environment should be secure too.  

YES the picture of the ATM machine is liable to be move by robbers if there are no security gadget around the environment to protect the ATM machine. Even the users are not save equally because they can be robe during the process of carryout respective transaction. Hope the company provide the necessary security alongside when installing the machine.

Atm robbery is quite common around the globe, now the scenario is different. Within the bitcoin ATMs small amount of funds will be placed as the people using the ATM service is quite low. This has become easily accessible for the robbers to take away the funds damaging the machine. Now it's time to secure the bitcoin ATMs through blockchain technology  :)

You are right about the cases or robbing ATMs in general, but according to the post in reddit to which the op referred, all of the funds were actually okay in this case:
I wonder if this robbery has anything to do with a so-called crypto ATM malware that was recently discussed on the forum: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5113410. Although, it probably did not, since the post mentione that the ATM was destroyed (so I guess the robbers physically invaded the ATM somehow). If it's possible to just kick the machine hard enough to break it open and get the money, investments in the materials should be considered.
I don't like ATMs anyway because of their fees.

this could have avoided if they put in a place that is much secure.. specially inside the malls and they have to put security alarm just incase

This is bad for them when thieves destroyed their ATM. I believe that using Bitcoin Bitcoin is great for people who want to own bitcoin in small amounts, but thieves are willing to destroy it to steal the money in ATM. So I believe that next time they will buy insurance for it.

Yes they do happen everywhere all over the world. But those machines way a ton and you usually see people hooking up trucks to try and pull them away so they can crack them open some place else other then where they were bolted down to.
These bitcoin atm machines are placed on a stand in these establishments and do not look like they weight more than 50-75 pounds and could be hauled away by a person.

hackers are indeed very detrimental to everyone, and I think if there is an ATM the top one will result in bankruptcy and might affect the price of bitcoin.

So they did't lost money aside from the machine being destroyed and their business being ended too. Sad, good that the thieves were not able to get any data from the machine so their bitcoins are safe (hopefully). Even if the CCTV will be able to trace and find the suspects since they don't have any insurance so their machine will not be restored to them unless they make a new one or repair the old one.

Well, Crypto ATM’s are also prone to this kind of incident so the operator must secure their machine at all times.

1. Its the loss of the operator, but for sure they will place it on a more secure place just like what banks are doing, 24/7 monitoring is ideal thing to do for this one.

2. For conveniency, which is more liquid compare to other way of cashing out. Its your choice to use it or not.  :)

If you think the machine was not on the safest place, then better not to make any transaction on that machine, think for your safety first

In the first place if I am one of the users or clients of the crypto ATM, well I guess I am not affect by it. Because only the ATM would get affect by the hackers not the users/customers. And it will only be risky if you will your password to anyone then aside from that I don't see any risk from this things.

Probably thats number one factor why the price was declining very fast because of that robbery. Secure location was the best and ample way to make this atm have acquired safety. Risk is somewhere to happen, that's why the most priority is keeping it safe all the time, specially when this involves a lot of money. It's always recommended to place this bitcoin atm machine not in public places without visibility of the authority, and these days more it hackers were roaming around to intrude their victims.

This shouldn't be a big deal, any ATM can be robbed if the operators aren't careful and off the ATM isn't in a secured location. There is hardly any ATM that doesn't have CCTV camera so if this one doesn't have one then the operators are to blame.

This post made me curious about starting a bitcoin atm business and this is what I came across

https://coinatmradar.com/blog/how-to-start-a-bitcoin-atm-business/

it's really not that expensive to get an ATM for BTC going

its rare to see atm's that are aware from crowded areas because atm owners do also know the risk of being robbed but if ever they are away , there were still security/police that will guard the area on where the atm is located   . there's also cctv's around them   .


even though bitcoins are known to be anonymous  . robbers can still get traced if ever there's a witness that sees them after they robbed an atm machines .

ATM should have an integrated security system, namely mutual security from both the location, law enforcement and security against data breakers. this might be a procedure error that could have happened.

Good thing that this happen and lucky that only the machine is affected and not the costumers,now the operators are more particular on putting the machinery’s in systematic locations and will keep secured for the benefits of both machines and the cryptonians.sometimes things must happen to become an eye opener so we can pevent thngs from happening again,thanks to those robbers lol

Feels bad , I guess its their natural instinct when they see an ATM or anything that is similar to it they think it is holding a bunch of money. Too bad the machine is damaged , is it repairable or is it busted forever ? Never seen one before , neither have an idea what it looks like / how it works.

From their statement they took the money before the night of the atm was robbed. If they put their atm machine in a secured place maybe it will lessen the chance of being robbed but the case was already done. It is always risky because the atm machines are vulnerable in any attempt of theft.

they cant hacked it the only thing that they can do is to destroy the machine and take all the fund there,it does not mean that the ATM machine itself are hackable the issue is the vandalism and the attempt of destroying the machine to get out the fund.

If the ATM is hacked, then all of the funds are losses of its operator or bank so the client's funds are still safe. Only ATMs that are in rural areas who don't have enough securities are prone to hacks and theft. It is very hard to hack an ATM in a very secured place.

I don't think that ATM robbery is the root cause why the market has plummet few days ago. There's nothing to do with this robbery, no crypto has been stolen and the ATM was itself affected with this robbery.

Why they are not going to put this bitcoin ATM on public? where do you want them to put this? on private places where people aren't aware of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?

No funds were stolen.

1. It is the owner of the ATM who will have a problem with that.
2. Why live this life if it is so stressful?  ;D

Everything is risky nowadays. Even p2p transaction will give you a hard time looking for identifications and even bank accounts just so your bitcoin could turn into fiat.
If I were you choose wisely. If you decide to buy bitcoin then be ready to not withdraw it for a long time. You must still earn the right amount for your necessity and leave the rest for buying bitcoin.

People are Just Insane, robbery is a serious threat to the crypto ATM shops. and yes looting money is their main thought neither they have empathy or any humanity, and Ii believe nothing was stolen here else It will become a hot topic in this forum and FUD's are waiting to spread it already to make this a serious thread and fade the public with a scary note.

if its an bitcoin atm i think the robber will only get the cash inside that atm
it will take a lot of effort before they can get any bitcoin in that atm especially if its broken and the wallet of the atm is connected online
to bad for the owner i think the bitcoin atm itself is much expensive than whats in the wallet or what the thief get on it

Yeah, that's one of the biggest issues with those ATMs, I am genuinely surprised no scams like this have yet been done with this trick, and I mean by the ones actually running those ATMs.
Most of the times those machines don't transfer bitcoins from the owner purse but from the 3rd party that provides the machine.

But, straight to the situation here, I found this on twitter:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpKHLjJWsAEH2BQ.jpg

Those thieves might have a tougher task with my mailbox than with this


There are still people that think like you around here?

the truth is there is nothing in this world that doesnt have risk. Even the money you keep in banks have their own risk. I have witness a bank fold up in my country and every cash went missing. Crypto ATM was a good idea but that doesnt mean there wont be shortcomings. But then if it is robbed , it doesnt affect the owner of the crypto , only affects the guys incharge of the crypto ATM, thus they should ensure they is tough security to safe guard everyone's funds.

It's not the crypto ATM that are risky. Just that, there will always be people who would choose to do bad things. ATMs will always be vulnerable for this kind of act and its not something new about ATMs being robbed. The thing that made it more risky is the location, I guess. Just glad that you've withdrawn everything but still feel bad for what happened

Witty  ;D.
But I think this thread deserves a serious approach. Can't imagine how depressing it is to have some scumbag absolutely destroy your business just for the sake of it.

ATM's are used worldwide, if they were 'so risky' it would have never entered mainstream. Usually, there are cctv's around atm's, I guess they will find culprit. Anyway, it was not user's fund that got stolen.

Why is it that anything that happens in the cryptocurrency world becomes a topic like it hasn't happened before
People rob ATM be it fiat ATM or cryptocurrency ATM it's a crime and should be handled like that with out creating a topic out of it

You do not need to worry about the safety of your funds. It is up to the ATM operator to ensure that your funds are safe. Even though its risky, you stand to loose nothing especially in cases where the ATMs are covered by insurance.

After seeing the picture I can tell that this ATM is not that durable I felt sad to the operator they should not release an ATM like this or if ever there should be a security guard on standby. Outside ATM should be firmly attached to the walls or something. Anyways there is no risk to Bitcoin ATM users.

This is sad story. I bet they payed like $20 000 for this machine and some brainless yahoo's destroyed their's hopes and dreams of become Bitcoin ATM Tycoon's.
I hope they recover, although they didnt bought insurance for installing $20 000 machine in public place, which is risky always.
So anyone considering this business, buy insurance.

edit: wow this damaged machine really looks bad, i bet thiefs thought that bitcoins will spur from the cracked side :P

1. If the robber is too good at hacking, Maybe he can get those bitcoin address in the history of the ATM but he can never get those private keys and get users account. The robbed money is never related to users fund so its from the operators account.

2. Everything is risky and its just an isolated case. Even fiat ATMs and banks are robbed. So its not that big deal to worry.

Honestly I don't see anything bad in this, that could somehow affect cryptocurrencies and its users. If you think about it all kind of ATM's get robbed every time and it happened that this time their best target was this bitcoin ATM probably because it was not protected very well and it was placed into an area to vulnerable.

Like bank ATMs, bitcoin ATM was robbed in mechanical manner. These people couldn't reach coins that are bought before via this ATM by people.  There is no need to worry about the technology of bitcoin ATMs.

The hacker doesn't need to even try and inquire about the past transactions, not only it is futile but even if possible it's also a lot less lucrative than other alternatives.

That ATM was doing less than a thousand worth of transaction a day, the robber could have simply fed the ATM some cash, break the strong box (which was not strong at all) and reuse the cash for another tx or just walk away.

A bank ATM doesn't work like that, if I would try to load my debit card and then break the ATM to get my money it's pretty obvious who the culprit is.Also, bank ATMs are nothing like this card box that got trashed.


If they did pay 20k$ for that, then the real thieves were not the ones that destroyed the ATM but the ones that sold them that piece of junk.

So if they steal the whole thing, force the vault open without damaging the computer, they could use a single banknote endlessly, or, they could leave it intact and spend and actual fortune and when the vault is full smash it open to recover their fiat. Hmm or why bother stealing it, all they need is trespass to perform the operation right there.

Yes i can see more low tech attacks coming, now that bitcoin is becoming "mainstream", even the thieves will want a piece of the pie...

They can always do that, I don't know how long the machine will operate since I have not tried a single transaction in crypto ATM but it's necessary to take the cash out on a regular basis. The only problem according to them is their ATM were destroyed, I don't know how much that cost but they also loss some opportunity to earn as their operation were halted because of it.




Most ATMs are put in public so it's visible and any attempt stealing it can easily be caught.
We don't have a big number of crypto ATM in this world, most are fiat ATM so maybe the ATM was not position at the right place.

I'm just wondering if the idiots who robbed it were actually looking for physical bitcoins inside it! Dumb criminals still exist apparently. The guy is right though, should have bought insurance on their machine.

That would be very funny and strange but not impossibe. Many people still don't know basic about bitcoin, including the fact that is not existing in phisical shape. It's really strange, this is the first time I hear that bitcoin ATM is robbed.

Luckily, at that post, they withdrew all the funds in the ATM before the robbery. But the bad news was the machine was destroyed. 

It is the ATM's personnel's fault for them to lose funds. They should have put a CCTV camera in order for them not to get caught.


Since we are always aiming for development and also the dream of bitcoin becomes the new fiat, people supports bitcoin are doing what they can to promote it everywhere.

First of all ATM's getting robbed are not that uncommon this days,even a official atm from a bank get robbed,all atm are secured yes but with the use of correct tools where robbers are good at choosing everything can be penetrated,robbers can steal fiat from the atm but not the bitcoins because it is being manage by an admin for sure and an system,Atm are not risky at all plus that is an bitcoin atm so it means indentity of the consumers where hidden

Normally there is a camera built into these machines, they should keep a live feed for protection or place them in secure areas, somewhere public where ram raiders cannot get a clean getaway

For sure banks will be one who are really  need to care every ATM's and once it robed the other people the funds will detacted to their banks not from the crypto funds. Because it's unfair if they detacted the money who robed by the people to the crypto funds. It's their fault because they need to hire more security to take care the ATM's it's my opinion only and that's right I think.

In my opinion this is a bit strange behavior of robbers, why not,
What everyone knows about crypto ATMs is digital currency, not real money for buying and selling, when new transactions become the legitimate currency of one country, and there must be a certain password for the user,
if the crypto ATM is robbed how to take the assets that were robbed.


One example of crypto ATM.

Robers are not dumb and they know that these atm machines  have a built in camera and cctv's sorrounding on them so basically they will just wear a face mask to cover their faces before they ransact the atm machine  .  however putting the atm at a public places might be a good idea and its even better if they put some guards around it for more extra protection .

Bitcoin atm for now should have to be more secured like the usual bank atms,

question #1 = That is primarily not our own problem, if you are the atm's owner you should know where to put it safely rather than placing it somewhere risky. I think it is impossible to hack as I am pretty sure the funds are actually not on the atm.

question #2 = because it is a good business risk is already there even without the atm.

This will require engagement of law enforce or some private security company. Personally dont think that any company that made bitcoin ATM dont think about it. But they should, just google a little and there is at least once a month similar robbery all over the world.

Maybe the robber thought that in the ATM have big money like the other ATM, but what he gets after that, he doesn't find any money at all. I hope that in the future, no bitcoin ATM machine getting robbed again and I hope that those bitcoin ATM machines can work functionally so we can use the machine to make a transaction.

Most of these type of criminals who perform these sort of crimes are drug addicts and usually are high on the drug they are stealing from these atm machines for their next hit. So questioning if they are in sound mind is thrown out the window.

i dont know how to robed the bitcoin ATM that dont have the money on it, because i think all transaction on bitcoin is worked online and i think that it can'e be hacked. so its hard to hacked the bitcoin ATM, if you can hack the bitcoin atm i think you can hack the blockchain system

I think they need to learn more about bitcoin, so they don't make a mistake to choose the target ;D

The ordinary thief will think that the ATM will full of the money but the truth, after they robbed the machine, they realize that they don't get any money inside the money.

I think that's why they're robbers,  ;D, they seldom used your brain. Perhaps they think that they are physical bitcoin or even fiat inside that they they rob and thinking it's the easiest to make money. But we all know that Bitcoin ATM is different fro conventional ATM's around, so it's too bad for the robbers.