WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) -Bitcoin regulations could be coming to Wisconsin to try to protect you from losing thousands of dollars. Newly proposed state legislation would restrict the operations of Bitcoin Treasury Machines, or BTMs.
The proposed legislation would require cryptocurrency companies to refund people, if they lose money after a scammer enticed them to send it through a BTM.
The Wood County Sheriff’s Department has been following fraud related to Bitcoin. There have been a number of victims in Wood County alone, including one person who is out $40,000.
Investigative Lieutenant Scott Goldberg from Wood County Sheriff’s Department has been speaking with state representatives about the need for cryptocurrency restrictions in Wisconsin.
“Having these restrictions is only going to provide safety, financial safety, for our community and we’re super excited that someone’s moving forward with that,” says Lieutenant Goldberg. “I actually emailed and tried to communicate with every state representative and senator in the state.”
Those representatives include Senator Kelda Roys, who just introduced the legislation that would also require warning signs to be posted on cryptocurrency machines, warning about fraudulent transactions. “Unfortunately, (you)hear these tragic stories of people who, just in an instant, they just wire away their life savings, right. Their whole 401K is gone. And that should never happen,” says Senator Roys.
Here’s how that can happen: a person calls, saying they’re with the FBI and your bank was hacked. Then, a second person calls, pretending to be your bank and urging you to purchase cryptocurrency to save your money. You’re then told to transfer that cryptocurrency to a digital wallet that you may think is your bank’s, but it’s not, and you just sent that money to a scammer.
The new legislation would only allow $1,000 to be transferred at a time and limit fees cryptocurrency companies can charge for BTM transactions.
“Now I want Wisconsinites to have the freedom to use these new and emerging technologies to experiment with them, but I don’t want people to be victimized and I don’t want to facilitate criminal activity,” says Senator Roys.
We should know more about the proposed legislation in the fall.
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