Law enforcement agencies from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have launched a joint initiative called Operation Atlantic aimed at disrupting cryptocurrency fraud schemes known as approval phishing attacks, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) announced Monday.
The scams work by tricking victims into approving malicious wallet permissions via fake alerts or pop-ups that appear to come from trusted apps or services, OSC said. Once access is granted, criminals take control of the wallet and can transfer funds. Since blockchain transactions cannot be reversed, recovery becomes difficult once assets leave a victim’s account.
According to Chainalysis, cryptocurrency scams generated at least $14 billion in on-chain revenue in 2025, and totals are expected to climb up to $17 billion as more illicit wallets are identified. Much of the activity now relies on social engineering tactics, complex AI-generated content, and phishing platforms as a service to trick victims into granting wallet access or transferring funds.
“Phishing and investment scams cost victims millions in financial losses each year,” said Brent Daniels, deputy assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service Office of Field Operations, involved in the project.
The operation builds on Project Atlas, a 2024 initiative led by the Ontario Provincial Police Cyber Fraud Team to combat global crypto investment fraud. The project identified more than 2,000 compromised wallets across 14 countries, thwarted approximately $70 million in potential fraud, and froze approximately $24 million in stolen crypto. Similar international efforts, such as Chainalysis’ Operation Spincaster, have generated more than 7,000 investigative leads linked to approximately $162 million in losses, highlighting the scale of approval phishing schemes targeting crypto investors.
Authorities said the new operation would help warn potential victims and guide them in securing compromised wallets while attempting to trace and recover stolen funds.
“During Operation Atlantic, the Secret Service, alongside our international law enforcement partners, will identify and disrupt these scams in near real time, denying criminals the opportunity to further profit from their crimes,” Daniels said.
