International Operation Freezes $12 Million in Stolen Cryptocurrency Assets
An international law enforcement operation involving 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 operation focused on a sophisticated form of approval phishing, a tactic often used in investment scams known as 'pig butchering.' In these schemes, criminals trick victims into granting full administrative access to their cryptocurrency wallets using fraudulent web domains and deceptive notifications that mimic legitimate services. Once access is granted, the scammers drain the accounts. Authorities identified more than 20,000 compromised wallet addresses across 30 countries and directly contacted over 3,000 individuals to warn them of active threats to their assets. Additionally, more than 120 fraudulent web domains used to facilitate these scams were taken offline. 
