Share This Article
A new cross-border law enforcement effort is targeting one of crypto’s most effective scam tactics.
Authorities in the US, UK and Canada have launched Operation Atlantic, a joint initiative focused on disrupting approval-phishing schemes that trick users into handing over access to their wallets. The operation is being co-hosted by the U.S. Secret Service, the UK’s National Crime Agency, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission. Officials say the goal is to identify active scams, warn victims quickly, help users secure compromised wallets and recover stolen funds where possible.
Approval phishing has become a major problem in crypto because it does not always rely on stealing a seed phrase or hacking an exchange. Instead, victims are lured into signing malicious wallet approvals through fake pop-ups, spoofed apps or deceptive prompts that appear legitimate. Once the approval is granted, attackers can drain tokens directly from the wallet. Chainalysis has previously described these schemes as a growing part of the broader crypto scam ecosystem, especially when paired with real-time laundering and cross-chain movement of funds.
Operation Atlantic builds on earlier anti-scam work in the sector. Canadian authorities say Project Atlas, a 2024 initiative led by the Ontario Provincial Police, identified more than 2,000 compromised wallet addresses across 14 countries, disrupted around $70 million in potential fraud, prevented over $1 million in transfers to scammers, and helped freeze roughly $24 million in stolen crypto.
The wider backdrop is a fraud market that continues to scale. Chainalysis said crypto scams and fraud totaled an estimated $17 billion in 2025, with AI-enabled scams proving significantly more profitable than traditional ones. The firm also pointed to the industrialization of scam operations, including phishing-as-a-service infrastructure, deepfakes and increasingly sophisticated impersonation tactics.
That context helps explain why regulators and law enforcement are leaning harder into real-time disruption. Rather than only tracing stolen funds after victims have already been hit, Operation Atlantic is aimed at intervening while scams are still active. Officials say the effort will focus on public awareness, active disruption and helping victims shut down compromised wallet permissions before more assets are drained.
For crypto users, the message is simple. The biggest risk is not always a smart contract exploit or exchange breach. Sometimes it is a wallet prompt that looks routine, but quietly gives a scammer permission to empty your holdings.
If Operation Atlantic works as intended, it could become a template for how cross-border agencies respond to the next generation of crypto fraud, fast, coordinated and aimed at stopping losses before they spiral.