An international operation involving law enforcement agencies from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada has targeted multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency theft schemes.
Dubbed Operation Atlantic, the initiative identified over $45 million in stolen funds and successfully froze approximately $12 million in stolen assets. The frozen funds will be returned to the victims.
The week-long operation targeted a sophisticated form of approval phishing, a tactic frequently used in pig butchering investment scams.
In these schemes, criminals trick victims into granting full administrative access to their cryptocurrency wallets by using fraudulent web domains and deceptive notifications that mimic legitimate services. Once access is granted, the scammers drain the accounts.
Authorities said they identified more than 20,000 compromised wallet addresses spanning 30 different countries. Investigators directly contacted over 3,000 individuals to warn them of active threats to their assets.
In addition, more than 120 fraudulent web domains used to facilitate cryptocurrency scams were taken offline.
The US recently announced the seizure of more than $14 billion in bitcoin obtained by a Cambodian crime ring through cryptocurrency scams.
While such criminal enterprises exploit victims for profit, North Korean hackers have taken the threat to another level, stealing billions in cryptocurrency to bankroll the isolated regime’s weapons programs.
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