Bitcoin ATM scammers successfully targeted senior citizens last year, making off with $110 million. Often, the loot starts with a “concerned” call to customer service.

Victims reported hefty losses from fraud cases involving money sent through bitcoin ATMs (electronic crypto kiosks where you can buy and sell bitcoin). That’s a nearly tenfold increase from 2020, according to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data provided to NBC News.

The data shows that Americans over the age of 60 are three times more likely to be victims of sexual abuse than younger adults.

“These Bitcoin ATMs appear to have opened a gateway of sorts for scammers looking to use cryptocurrency to target older adults,” Emma Fletcher, a senior data researcher at the FTC, told NBC News.

FTC spokespeople did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for information.

According to the FTC, these scams typically involve the fraudster contacting a victim and posing as a customer service representative or government official, notifying the victim of an attempted identity theft or account compromise.

The perpetrator sends a QR code linked to a digital wallet.

Thinking they are protecting their assets, the victim scans the code and deposits money into the Bitcoin ATM, after which the money ends up in the perpetrator’s hands.

Marilyn LoCascio, 76, lost $31,500 to a fraud ring that posed as an Apple tech support specialist, a bank employee and two government officials.

The fraud started when she received an alert on her iPad that looked like a security notification.

“I just called the number without thinking. … it was going to be anything but Apple,” LoCascio, who lives in Indiana, told NBC News.

“A gentleman answered who was supposedly a technician, and he even gave me a case ID, and from there it went like crazy.”

According to the University of Florida, older adults are more vulnerable to financial exploitation than younger people because their cognitive and memory functions are not as sharp.

They also experience a lack of support and loneliness, and are less able to rely on their ‘gut feelings’.

There are nearly 40,000 Bitcoin ATMs worldwide, but they are banned in countries like the UK and Singapore.

Bitcoin ATMs are legal in the US and look and function like regular ATMs, except deposits and withdrawals are made with cryptocurrency instead of cash.

You can find them in supermarkets, gas stations and laundromats, among other places.