Secret Service and Canadian Authorities Disrupt $4.3M Ethereum Scam in 'Operation Avalanche'

The United States Secret Service has partnered with Canadian authorities in a coordinated effort to dismantle a sophisticated Ethereum-based scam that defrauded victims of over $4.3 million.

The United States Secret Service has teamed up with Canadian authorities to shut down a major cryptocurrency scam that defrauded victims out of more than $4.3 million.

The cross-border operation, dubbed “Operation Avalanche,” focused on disrupting a rising threat known as “approval phishing.”

British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) joined forces with the Secret Service, Canadian law enforcement, several cryptocurrency trading platforms, and blockchain analytics firms to identify compromised Ethereum wallets.

The agencies aim to track down the owners of those compromised wallets and alert them that they are victims of a scam.

“Once identified, the owners of those compromised wallets are warned that they are victims of a scam, known as ‘approval phishing’,” the agencies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

What Is Approval Phishing?

Approval phishing is a type of cryptocurrency scam where fraudsters deceive users into approving malicious transactions, granting attackers the ability to drain assets from their wallets. These scams often use deceptive links, fake websites, or social engineering to induce victims into authorizing wallet access.

The wallets targeted in Operation Avalanche were found to have lost millions in digital assets due to such schemes.