US Secret Service combats $4.3 million Ethereum 'phishing' scam with aid of Canadian officials

United States Secret Service analysts recently teamed up with Canadian authorities to combat an Ethereum “approval phishing” scam, according to a statement released Wednesday. 

Dubbed "Operation Avalanche," the Secret Service analysts and the BC Securities Commissions partnered in an effort to warn potential victims of fraud. The operation identified digital wallets that had lost $4.3 million dollars, the statement also said.

"The operation brought together securities regulators, multiple Canadian police agencies, crypto trading platforms and a blockchain analysis firm with the goal of finding compromised wallets on the Ethereum blockchain," according to the statement. "Once identified, the owners of those compromised wallets are warned that they are victims of a scam, known as 'approval phishing.'"

The Secret Service, which is "tasked with safeguarding the integrity of the nation’s economy," has been actively cracking down on illicit activity in crypto for quite some time. Last month, the law enforcement agency said it had "seized website domains linked to Russian cryptocurrency exchange, Garantex, and froze multiple cryptocurrency assets owned by the exchange."

"Our analysts from the Washington Field Office provided Canadian officials with the help needed to disrupt this scheme and prevent bad actors from continuing to receive stolen funds," Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool said in a statement. "We will continue working with Canadian law enforcement and financial partners to identify and seize stolen assets to return to victims."

An "approval phishing" scam seeks to dupe people into granting access to their crypto wallet so that perpetrators can steal funds from the wallet's owner.