The email looked like a surprise charge of nearly $500 from Best Buy, along with a customer service line to help with any questions.

The man who answered the line quickly acknowledged the charge was a mistake and promised a refund.

But as he worked to resolve the problem, he announced in a shocked voice, his company accidentally refunded thousands of extra dollars. The only fix, he said, was for the caller to urgently return the money through a crypto ATM – a machine that converts cash into cryptocurrency.

It all sounded extremely confusing and vaguely convincing.

But the man on the phone was no Best Buy customer service operator – he was a scammer.

And the caller was no unsuspecting victim – she was a CNN reporter who had deliberately called the line to see how these schemes operate.

When the reporter confronted the man, he dropped his cover story and openly talked about how much he and his colleagues have been swindling from victims: “Like a couple million dollars a month,” he said.

Welcome to the shadowy world of crypto ATM scams.

These hoaxes, in which unwitting victims are tricked into sending con artists their savings through crypto ATMs, have risen exponentially in recent years. The FBI received nearly 11,000 crypto ATM scam complaints last year, totaling about a quarter billion dollars in losses – an amount on track to potentially double this year.

How are so many Americans falling for these hoaxes and handing over hard-earned money?

Watch scammer try to steal thousands from CNN reporter 3:02 • Source: CNN Watch scammer try to steal thousands from CNN reporter 3:02

To answer that question, CNN reviewed more than 700 police reports and consumer complaints compiled since last year, interviewed dozens of victims and detectives who have investigated the cases – and even called scammers directly.

The reporting revealed how scammers pose as trusted experts, authorities or romantic partners, and then pummel victims with layers of lies that overwhelm their emotions, impede their judgement and push them to act in ways that appear irrational in hindsight.

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