State lawmakers discuss cryptocurrency safety bill and common scams

MADISON, Wis (CIVIC MEDIA) – State Senator Kelda Roys (D – Madison) and Representative Ryan Spaude (D – Ashwaubenon) joined Civic Media’s “Mornings with Pat Kreitlow” to discuss the dangers cryptocurrency kiosks present and how their proposed bill will offer vital safeguards for Wisconsinites’ financials.

Senator Roys began the segment by offering a broad overview of the bill, explaining that it aims to protect residents from being scammed while utilizing the kiosks.

“Unfortunately, what’s happening right now with these crypto kiosks being totally unregulated is that people are being scammed, and they’re being used to facilitate criminal activity,” Senator Roys said. So, massive fraud. And, stories are really, really heartbreaking, people just losing their life savings in an instant. So, this is a bill to basically put a framework, create some guardrails so that people can safely use cryptocurrency kiosks, and so that there’s some accountability, and law enforcement can actually go after these criminals, which right now is almost impossible for them to do.

“Crypto is the Wild West still,” Representative Spaude added. “There’s still a lot of unregulated areas of that, we’ll call it, enterprise. And what we’re doing is, we’re stepping up at the state level, and we’re saying ‘hey, we need to have some rules. We need to have some ground-game rules that everyone is expected to follow. And the goal – we want to encourage entrepreneurship and development of new technology… there are many cases, both here in Wisconsin and across the country, of folks – frequently they’re seniors – who are being defrauded. We need to have some good government, some very basic regulations in place, to make sure people are not cheated and scammed out of their livelihoods.”

Pat then asked what tactics scammers are using to take to cheat people out of their money, to which Senator Roys provided several examples.

“A lot of scams basically tell you to go put money in this kiosk because you’re going to buy something from overseas,” Senator Roys explained. “Criminals use them to transfer proceeds from their ill-gotten activities. We’ve also seen a startling rise in the number of love-bombings, or catfishing schemes, who are really targeting people who are isolated, and feeling sad and lonely, and they meet someone on the internet who tells them that they love them… and then (they) have a need for money for some family member surgery, or something like that, and before the person realizes it’s a scam, their money is gone.”

The interview concluded with a discussion of the Trump Administration, with Pat voicing his concern that President Trump’s policies on cryptocurrency may clash with Senator Roys’ and Representative Spaude’s endeavors in the space. The Wisconsin lawmakers agreed, and Senator Roys shared her thoughts on the regime’s insistence on interfering with the state’s efforts in protecting consumers.

“I’m very concerned that this absolutely corrupt regime in Washington is going to try to crack down on (the) state’s ability to protect consumers,” Senator Roys stated. “We have never seen a president try (to) monetize being in the White House the way this president has, and one of the ways he’s doing that is crypto schemes… There are still rules in place, and there are regulatory regimes that have to be followed. And, crypto really is the Wild West, and that is why it’s the asset of choice for criminals and fraudsters. And the idea that we should just sit by as people are scammed – I think is outrageous, right?

I mean, what is government for if we’re not going to stop crime and keep people safe?”

Editor’s note: Tune into “Mornings with Pat Kreitlow” weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. on the Civic Media radio network.