An international law enforcement action led by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has identified over 20,000 victims of cryptocurrency fraud across Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Dubbed “Operation Atlantic,” this joint action took place last month, and it involved the NCA, the U.S. Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ontario Securities Commission, and multiple private industry partners.
“The NCA hosted law enforcement agencies at their London HQ and through real time intelligence sharing, technical capabilities and victim outreach, multiple fraud networks were disrupted across the world,” the NCA said. “City of London Police, Financial Conduct Authority and other international law enforcement bodies also joined the weeklong action.”
The investigators have also frozen more than $12 million in suspected criminal proceeds obtained through “approval phishing” attacks, in which scammers trick victims into granting them access to their cryptocurrency wallets, typically via investment scams. They also identified more than $45 million in stolen cryptocurrency connected to fraud
