Law enforcement agencies from the U.S., U.K. and Canada started a joint initiative called Operation Atlantic aimed at disrupting cryptocurrency fraud schemes known as approval-phishing attacks, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) said Monday.

The scams work by prompting victims to approve malicious wallet permissions through fake alerts or pop-ups that appear to come from trusted apps or services, the OSC said. Once access is granted, criminals gain control of the wallet and can transfer funds. Because blockchain transactions cannot be reversed, recovery becomes difficult once assets leave a victim’s account.

Cryptocurrency scams generated at least $14 billion in onchain revenue in 2025, according to Chainalysis, with totals…