AARP Hearing Center
AARP’s Guardian Award Honors Law Enforcement Fraud Fighters
The inaugural award was given to two police officials who combat cryptocurrency scams
Sgt. Nathan VanCleave (center), with AARP Chief Advocacy Officer Nancy LeaMond (left) and AARP Indiana State Legislative Director Ambre Marr, was honored for his work preventing fraud and scams.
Jared Soares for AARP
Key takeaways
- Cryptocurrency kiosks were used in scams that led to more than $389 million in reported losses in 2025.
- AARP has helped 29 states pass laws restricting the use of crypto kiosks in scams, including Indiana, which passed the first nationwide ban on the machines.
- The Guardian Award honored two law enforcement officers who were instrumental in efforts to protect consumers from cryptocurrency scams.
Nathan VanCleave, a sergeant with the Evansville, Indiana, police department, was in the back room of a local gas station reviewing security footage for a case when a clerk asked if VanCleave could come up front.
A woman in her 60s was on her cellphone, feeding a stack of $100 bills into the store’s cryptocurrency kiosk. VanCleave convinced the woman to stop depositing money, but he was unable to cancel the transaction. “All there was was a ‘send money’ button,” VanCleave says.
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That was the moment he realized he needed to do something about crypto kiosks in his city. His advocacy work with AARP helped push Indiana lawmakers to pass the nation’s first statewide ban on crypto kiosks earlier this year. The morning after the ban went into effect, VanCleave celebrated by visiting every kiosk location in Evansville to make sure the machines were switched off. Since then, Tennessee and Minnesota have instituted their own statewide bans. Twenty-eight other states have passed measures to protect consumers at crypto kiosks.
VanCleave and Matthew Hogan, a detective with the Connecticut state police, were honored May 12 with AARP’s inaugural Guardian Award. The award recognizes law enforcement officers who have gone above and beyond to protect older Americans from fraud, scams and financial exploitation.
Last year, adults 60 and older accounted for 76 percent of the $389 million in losses in cryptocurrency kiosk scams alone, according to FBI crime statistics. That’s just a portion of the nearly $8 billion that was stolen from older adults through other types of scams.
Before the awards were presented at AARP’s Washington, D.C., headquarters Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement office, spoke about the growing threat of scams targeting older Americans and the impact of law enforcement officers working to foil scammers and educate the public. “Time and again, we've seen the difference that one committed, passionate officer can make. And tonight, we honor two of the very best,” she said. “They’ve made it their mission to stand up for and protect older Americans. “
Detective Matthew Hogan (center), is flanked by AARP Chief Advocacy Officer Nancy LeaMond (left) and AARP Connecticut State Director Nora Duncan at AARP headquarters.
Jared Soares for AARP
Educating fellow officers in Connecticut
When Hogan first encountered cryptocurrency around 2016, “no one knew what crypto was,” he says. Hogan and his partner taught themselves to trace and confiscate stolen money by turning to the U.S. Marshals, the Secret Service and the National Computer Forensics Institute for help.
Hogan recalls one local woman who was manipulated into investing cryptocurrency by a criminal posing as a romantic partner. Hogan traced the transactions through multiple offshore accounts and recovered $30,000 of the $1 million that was stolen. “That's a win for us, but it's not the person being made whole,” Hogan says.
Last year, victims in Connecticut lost more than $90 million to crypto scams, according to FBI statistics. “A big number for a small state,” says Hogan. He and his partner have handled about 150 cases involving cryptocurrency scams, tracing and recovering an average of $7 million of victims’ money over the past four years.
Hogan played a key role in suggesting language for Connecticut's 2023 crypto kiosk law and regularly partners with AARP to hold fraud information sessions with older adults. “Matt has really driven home the dangers of crypto in scams,” says Nora Duncan, state director of AARP’s Connecticut office. “He literally answers in a heartbeat if we have a question regarding fraud or a victim.”
Join Our Fight Against Fraud
Here’s what you can do to help protect people 50 and older from scams and fraud:
- Tell lawmakers to stop criminals from using crypto kiosks to steal from us.
- Sign up to become a digital fraud fighter to help raise awareness about the latest scams.
- Read more about how we’re fighting for you every day in Congress and across the country.
- AARP is your fierce defender on the issues that matter to people 50-plus. Become a member or renew your membership today.
Fellow officers from around the country also rely on Hogan, asking for advice on how to trace and recover money, and as well as how to talk to scam victims.
“You can't come at them hard,” he says. “Victims are ashamed.”
That compassionate touch is important, says Amy Nofziger, senior director of victim support at the AARP Fraud Watch Network, who also attended the awards ceremony. “What I hear from a lot of victims is that it’s really the emotional losses and their loss of faith in themselves that is so devastating.”
Historic ban on cryptocurrency kiosks
Crypto kiosk scams have exploded in recent years. Until 2022, VanCleave says, about half of his work on scams was with people who had lost a few thousand dollars to gift card scams. But by 2025, he says, Evansville fraud victims were losing significantly more — an average of $11,000 each to crypto kiosk scams.
He and other law enforcement officials would follow a victim’s transactions, trying to “freeze it and seize it before the scammers would get the money. But we were coming up short every single time,” VanCleave says. “We realized that it really needed to be stopped on the front end rather than the back end.”
At first, VanCleave approached companies that had kiosks in their stores, hoping they would remove the machines, but they were reluctant. He then contacted state representatives to tell them about the impact the machines were having on Indiana residents. “It kind of fell on deaf ears,” VanCleave says. When AARP got involved, things changed, he says. “AARP was really a game changer in seeing this legislation through.”
That is the kind of consumer protection AARP advocates for.
Ambre Marr, legislative director for AARP Indiana, praised VanCleave’s help in getting legislators to understand what the stakes were for their constituents.
His testimony in front of the Indiana state Senate was so powerful that senators drafted an outright statewide ban on the machines, instead of just putting limits in place, Marr says.
VanCleave, in turn, says AARP was an essential partner in getting the ban passed. His advice for other members of law enforcement in other states concerned about the impact of crypto kiosks: “Talk to AARP. I don't know that it would have happened without them."
Immediately after the awards were presented, Hogan was approached by Rose Hobson, an AARP volunteer asking for help. Scammers had stolen the air miles she’d been saving. Hobson said she changed her password, but scammers were still accessing her account. Hogan, who faced a long drive back to Connecticut that night, stopped, listened carefully and offered advice.
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