Operation Atlantic: US, UK, Canada vs. Crypto Fraud

Operation Atlantic — a new cross-border law enforcement initiative targeting crypto approval phishing scams — launched this week with the US Secret Service, UK National Crime Agency, and Ontario authorities all signing on. The goal: catch scammers in near real-time, before victims' funds are gone for good. The timing isn't random. Crypto scams didn't just grow in 2025. They got sharper.

What Is Operation Atlantic?

What is Operation Atlantic and how does it target crypto fraud?

Three countries, one task force. The Operation Atlantic initiative pairs the US Secret Service with the UK's National Crime Agency and Canada's Ontario Provincial Police and Ontario Securities Commission, along with additional public and private sector partners. The mission is to identify and dismantle approval phishing operations — the crypto scam category that's been quietly bleeding victims dry for years.

"Approval phishing and investment scams cost victims millions in financial loss each year," said Brent Daniels, Deputy Assistant Director for the US Secret Service's Office of Field Operations, in a statement. "During Operation Atlantic, the US Secret Service, alongside our international law enforcement partners, will identify and disrupt these scams in near real-time — denying criminals the ability to further profit from their crimes."

Criminals operate across borders, so our response must do the same.

How Do Pig Butchering Scams Actually Work?

The official name is "approval phishing" — but the street name tells the story more honestly. Pig butchering scams work by luring victims into fake romantic relationships online, building trust over weeks or months, then convincing them to grant wallet access or transfer funds to a fraudulent investment platform. By the time the victim figures out what happened, the funds have moved through multiple wallets and the scammer has vanished.

These operations have been running at scale since 2020, and they're not slowing down. A November 2025 move by the US Department of Justice created an interagency Scam Center Strike Force aimed specifically at dismantling pig butchering networks tied to Chinese organized crime. That task force is still running. Operation Atlantic is the international complement — different partners, same enemy.

The 253% Jump Nobody's Talking About

Here's what gets buried in the task force announcement: the scam efficiency story. According to Chainalysis crypto scam losses 2025 data, total crypto scam losses hit a record $17 billion last year. That's alarming on its own. But the number that should really shake you is the average payment figure — $2,764 per scam transaction in 2025, up from $782 in 2024. A 253% increase. Year over year.

Scammers aren't just reaching more victims. They're extracting far more from each one. AI tools, deepfake audio, sophisticated impersonation — these are production upgrades, not one-off tricks. Operation Atlantic's real test isn't whether it can identify scammers. It's whether real-time disruption can actually claw back ground against an adversary that has professionalised faster than any regulator anticipated.

Building on Operation Atlas

"Project Atlas demonstrated the power of coordinated disruption," said Detective Superintendent Jennifer Spurrell, director of the Financial Crimes Services Bureau at the Ontario Provincial Police, in a statement. "We're proud to be part of Operation Atlantic, which builds on that approach by uniting international partners to take action in real time."

Operation Atlas — the Canadian-led predecessor launched in 2024 — showed that cross-border coordination could actually move fast enough to matter. Operation Atlantic scales that model up. Whether the expanded footprint translates to meaningfully faster takedowns is the question victims, and the broader crypto industry, are going to be watching.