Crypto Fraud: More than USD 12 million has been frozen as a result of international law enforcement efforts under Operation Atlantic, led by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA). Over 20,000 victims were identified across Canada, the UK, and the U.S. The targets of the operation, co-hosted by the Ontario Securities Commission, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the United States Secret Service, included “approval phishing” attacks, a newly emerging type of fraud in which victims grant access to their crypto wallets, regularly in investment scam schemes.
What is Approval Phishing?
To these matters, ‘approval phishing’ exploits the token approval mechanism in decentralized finance (DeFi) and differs from traditional phishing methods, which typically use password theft. Approval phishing typically involves directing victims to false investment websites or malicious links that instruct them to “approve” a malicious transaction. Once approval is granted, the attacker can access and drain funds from a victim’s wallet at will, and often drains for weeks or months without the victim realizing it. One victim from the UK was identified by authorities during the investigation of this operation and lost over £52,000 (around USD 65,000) as a result of this type of scam.
A Repeated Playbook
The amount of money that Americans are losing to crypto fraud is rising at an alarming rate. According to the FBI’s reports of 2025 alone, U.S. citizens lost approximately USD 11 billion to crypto fraud-related incidents, which represents an increase of USD 2 billion over 2024 losses.
The NCA’s Operation Atlantic shows that through cross-border collaboration between law enforcement agencies and the private sector (blockchain analytics companies), they can locate victims’ funds, freeze them before they are laundered, and possibly recover them. The Agency hosted several international law enforcement organisations at its London headquarters, where they were able to share real time intelligence to disrupt several criminal networks simultaneously.
On the other hand, there are also some initiatives intended to protect crypto investments and, at the same time, combat this crypto fraud epidemic. In 2025, the UK launched the first protection campaign for men under 45. The U.S., on its side, introduced the Scam Center Strike Force, uniting federal forces like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Secret Service to protect Americans against fraud.
Why It Matters in This Context
The NCA, along with its partners, will continue to analyse the information collected during Operation Atlantic to assist victims in recovering from crypto fraud while investigating other potential criminal activities. The NCA’s actions are consistent with the UK government’s Anti-Fraud Strategy, which seeks to promote public-private information-sharing so that law enforcement can intervene earlier to prevent victims from being exploited again. Private sector partners, specifically the blockchain analytics companies, provided invaluable assistance in identifying and tracing criminal behaviour in real time within the crypto ecosystem.
