Call it a devilish new twist on an old scam: ATM fraudsters are switching to bitcoin.

Data provided to NBC News by the Federal Trade Commission shows that the amount of money consumers report losing to Bitcoin ATM scams has increased nearly tenfold since 2020, to more than $110 million by 2023.

And older people are the ones most likely to be sucked in. The agency said consumers over the age of 60 were more than three times as likely as younger adults to say they had been scammed in these schemes.

“Scammers are using these machines more than we’ve ever seen to take people’s money,” Emma Fletcher, a senior data researcher at the FTC, told NBC News.

Bitcoin ATMs look like traditional ATMs and work in a similar way. They allow both deposits and withdrawals, but the transactions are in cryptocurrencies.

The machines are banned in some countries, including the UK and Singapore, but they are legal in the U.S. Today, there are nearly 32,000 nationwide, according to one estimate, up from just over 4,000 in early 2020. The kiosks are now found in high-traffic locations such as convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores — something that has contributed to the increase in fraud, federal authorities say.

In many of the incidents the FTC identified, fraudsters contacted a victim — or the victim inadvertently contacted them — posing as a customer service representative to report an attempted identity theft or account breach.

They eventually Their targets will text a square QR code — like the ones diners often use to request restaurant menus — that’s connected to a digital wallet. The victim is typically asked to scan the code and deposit money into the Bitcoin ATM, which converts it into bitcoin that’s immediately transferred to the scammer — all while believing they’re protecting their assets.

Scammers have a number of ways to pull off a successful scheme. Sometimes, multiple fraudsters are involved in a single heist, posing as employees of a government agency or company, including large tech companies like Microsoft or Apple, the FTC said.

Scams often begin when malicious actors obtain a victim’s phone number. Increasingly, many of these phone numbers are found on the “dark web,” the part of the Internet that normal browsers and search engines can’t reach, such as certain chat rooms, and which has made illegal activity possible.

Scammers often contact victims claiming there is an urgent problem with an account, sometimes via a message that looks like a legitimate warning, such as a pop-up notification.

“They try to create a situation that is really hard to ignore,” Fletcher said. “Then people are convinced that the problem is actually extremely serious.”

Indiana resident Marilyn LoCascio, 76, says she lost $31,500 to a scam ring involving people posing as an Apple tech support specialist, a bank teller and two government officials. It started when she received what appeared to be a security alert on her iPad, which led her to a fraudster who told her she had been hacked, with a payment to an online pornography site made from an account in her name.

“I just called the number without thinking. … It was supposed to be something other than Apple,” LoCascio said. “A gentleman answered the phone who was supposedly a technician, and he even gave me a case ID, and from there it just took off.”

As her interactions with the scammers continued, LoCascio sensed something was amiss. But after being put on a conference call with someone posing as a U.S. Treasury Department official, she became convinced that nothing was amiss. She added that she had never heard of Bitcoin before, but the apparent urgency of the situation made it seem prudent to follow instructions to protect herself.

Cryptocurrency scams have risen along with the price of Bitcoin, which is now worth about $60,000, roughly double its value a year ago. But Fletcher said that while many such scams, such as shady investment schemes, tend to target younger people, about $2 of every $3 lost in a Bitcoin ATM scam went to someone near or already of retirement age.

“It appears that these Bitcoin ATMs have opened a gateway of sorts for scammers looking to cash in on cryptocurrency and target the elderly,” she said.

Bitcoin ATM operators say they have taken measures to combat fraud and illegal activity.

“We provide numerous scam warnings on our machines at virtually every stage of a consumer transaction to help prevent people from falling victim to fraud and scams,” Bitcoin Depot Chief Operating Officer Scott Buchanan said in a statement.

The company, which describes itself as the largest bitcoin ATM provider, said its operations are heavily regulated and include extensive compliance and consumer protection policies. “We also have live customer service via email, chat, text and phone calls and encourage consumers who are concerned about a potential scam to contact our customer service team before transacting,” Buchanan said.

Bitcoin Depot has not been charged with a crime, though it is currently the subject of at least one lawsuit from a user who claims she was the victim of a fraudster at one of its kiosks. The company has denied responsibility.

“Unfortunately, like all financial institutions, we cannot prevent all instances of fraud that occur through our services,” Buchanan said.

Fletcher said some people have caught on to the scam quickly enough to alert the ATM operator and eventually get their money back, but such cases are rare. The best move, she said, is to take a breath and think twice before sending money through a Bitcoin kiosk at someone’s request.

“It makes sense that people would want to respond to a message like this quickly, but because these types of scams are so widespread, it’s really important that people take the time to check,” Fletcher said.