Law enforcement agencies from the US, UK 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) said on Monday.
The scams work by asking victims to approve malicious wallet permissions through fake alerts or pop-ups that appear to come from trusted apps or services, the OSC said. Once access is granted, criminals gain control of the wallet and can transfer funds. Because blockchain transactions cannot be reversed, recovery becomes difficult once the assets leave the victim’s account.
Cryptocurrency scams generated at least $14 billion in on-chain revenue in 2025, according to Chainalysis, and totals are expected to rise 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-as-a-service platforms to trick victims into granting them access to wallets or transferring funds.
“Approval phishing and investment scams cost victims millions in financial losses each year,” said Brent Daniels, deputy assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of Field Operations, which is involved in the project.
The operation is based on Project Atlas, a 2024 initiative led by the Ontario Provincial Police Cyber Fraud Team to combat global cryptocurrency fraud. The project identified more than 2,000 compromised wallets in 14 countries, disrupted approximately $70 million in potential fraud, and frozen approximately $24 million in stolen cryptocurrency. Similar international efforts, such as Chainalysis’ Operation Spincaster, generated more than 7,000 investigative leads linked to approximately $162 million in losses, highlighting the scale of approval of phishing schemes targeting crypto investors.
Authorities said the new operation will help warn potential victims and guide them on how to protect compromised wallets while they try to track and recover stolen funds.
“During Operation Atlantic, the Secret Service, along with our international law enforcement partners, will identify and disrupt these scams in near real time, denying criminals the ability to further profit from their crimes,” Daniels said.
