Canadian, American and British law enforcement agencies have frozen more than US$12-million of fraudulently obtained funds during a week-long blitz aimed at tackling cryptocurrency investment scams.

Dubbed Operation Atlantic, the initiative also identified another US$33-million that the agencies believe is linked to investment fraud schemes and plan to investigate further.

During the enforcement blitz, the U.S. Secret Service, Britain’s National Crime Agency, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission worked together to tackle what are known as “approval phishing” scams.

During these scams, victims are tricked into clicking a pop-up or alert that gives scammers access to their cryptocurrency wallets. The…