California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a warning to residents about the rising threat of cryptocurrency-related scams. His advisory follows reports of significant financial losses, with Americans losing about $11.4 billion to crypto scams in 2025, according to the FBI. Bonta highlighted various types of fraud, including AI-driven impersonations, celebrity-backed meme coins, and rug pull schemes, where scammers drive up a coin's price before abruptly selling their shares, leaving investors with worthless assets.
Bonta singled out crypto ATMs as particularly risky, advising residents to avoid them entirely. These machines, often found in businesses like Safeway grocery stores, allow users to buy, sell, and transfer cryptocurrency but lack consumer protections and are difficult to trace. While California has not yet banned them, several states, including Vermont and Tennessee, have already done so. Bonta also warned about other scams like pig butchering, sextortion, and liquidity mining, urging victims not to engage and to report such incidents to his office.
The Attorney General's Office recently secured settlements with Fidelity Digital Asset Services and Robinhood Crypto over complaints of restricted fund withdrawals. Additionally, the signing of Senate Bill 1208 by Governor Gavin Newsom in early October provides new tools to recover stolen cryptocurrency, even when perpetrators are outside U.S. jurisdiction. Bonta emphasized the importance of vigilance, advising residents to verify contacts, avoid unsolicited requests for personal information, and take nine seconds before acting on any financial decision.