It sounds like the plot of a movie involving a plane crash, a hostage situation, and urgent pleas for ransom money, but a Schaumburg woman believed every word.
In the end, she ended up sending $200,000 to save the doctor she thought she knew, and that she thought she loved.
When the romance scam unraveled, it led NBC 5 Responds to a bigger scam involving crypto ATMs, fraud, and a growing crackdown on an industry under fire.
Enter Dr. Cyrus Livingston
Let’s be honest: being single isn’t all bad.
“I didn’t have to deal with another person’s ideas, you know, comments, whatever,” said “Mary” from Schaumburg, who asked us not to use her real name to protect her privacy.
In 2025 after 30 years of the single life, “Mary,” suddenly found herself in a soap opera. Her leading man? A handsome doctor named Cyrus Livingston, who slid into her TikTok messages all the way from Yemen.
“The feelings came back of what it was to be loved and pretty, and I fell for it,” said Mary.
Mary thought she was falling for a doctor. But she didn’t realize she was actually falling for a script.
“Cyrus” checked nearly every box on the Romance Scammer Checklist:
-Overseas
-Unavailable for calls or video chats
-Widowed
-Caring for a sick child
-In desperate need of cash
“He got captured by some rebel. And he said that they thought I was not caring enough about him because I wouldn’t send money to get him out,” said Mary.
She eventually emptied $200,000 from her retirement accounts to supposedly rescue Cyrus and pay for his daughter’s medical treatment.
That story is how NBC 5 Responds ended up at a vape shop in Schaumburg with Mary.
“I just wanted to break open the machine and get my money back,” said Mary.
Cyrus used a newer tactic as a scammer, sending Mary to a crypto ATM in the vape shop, where staff watched her stuff thousands of dollars into the machine. Worker Ryan Williamson says it happens several times a month.
“I have tried in the past to warn people because usually as the people walk in here [with] someone on the phone with them I ask them ‘hey do you know that person? You know what’s going on?’” said Williamson.
And that’s a scene playing out across the country.
Crypto ATM scam losses have soared more than 3,100% since 2020, according to federal data. The FBI says Americans lost $388 million last year alone, including $26 million in Illinois and Indiana combined.
NBC 5 Responds reviewed dozens of local police reports involving crypto ATMs and found a theme: victims were often 50 to 75 years old, duped by fake tech support, bank or government impersonators, and lost an average of about $25,000.
“They just get told via phone call … ‘go to this location, put your money into this machine’. What they don’t realize is … no one can really get your money back,” said Tonantzin Carmona, a public policy researcher, and former fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Illinois has emerged as a crypto ATM hotspot, according to Carmona. But a closer look at where these machines are located reveals a striking pattern.
“Crypto ATMs tend to be placed in low-income communities, Black and Brown communities. The rationale to me makes so much sense. When you have communities that are historically excluded from wealth building avenues, it is incredibly rational to seek alternatives. Whether those alternatives are safer or not is a completely different question,” said Carmona.
An NBC 5 Responds analysis found the majority of Chicago-area crypto ATMs are concentrated in gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops, and researchers say that’s by design, not by chance.
“Vape shops realistically are very chill environments, very relaxed environments. Most people won’t question who comes in, what they’re doing,” said Williamson.
Back in Schaumburg, the crypto ATM Mary used to send money to Cyrus has gone dark. Its operator, once the largest bitcoin ATM company in North America, shut down in May, as states moved to tighten oversight of the industry.
“I promised my son I would never send him any more money,” said Mary.
Mary’s bank eventually flagged the withdrawals and alerted her son. A reverse image search revealed the painful truth: there was no Cyrus Livingston. The photos belonged to a popular Florida doctor who says scammers have used his image on hundreds of fake accounts.
“You’re not dating me on the internet. It’s somebody from Russia, Nigeria, China, who knows where,” said the doctor in an Instagram video warning his followers about the scam accounts.
For Mary, the damage didn’t end when the money ran out.
“I’m giving up all my travels and my retirement, and the only fun I give the grandkids now is buying lunch,” said Mary.
We asked if Mary if she would ever give romance another shot.
“Never. I’m going to buy a dog. Never. Never. He ruined it for me,” said Mary.
This year, Minnesota banned crypto ATMs, and lawmakers in other states are considering similar action. Last year Illinois enacted some of the nation’s toughest crypto ATM laws, limiting transactions, capping fees and creating refund protections for scam victims.
Key takeaways
• If you don’t regularly use cryptocurrency, don’t use a crypto ATM.
• In an online romance? Run a reverse image search on their photos. They may belong to someone else.
• If you have older parents, consider asking them to add you as a beneficiary on their bank or retirement accounts. That way you could be notified if there are suspicious transactions.
