In a significant move against cybercrime, the U.S. Secret Service and Canadian authorities have launched 'Operation Avalanche' to tackle a $4.3 million Ethereum phishing scam.

This operation is a collaborative effort involving the Secret Service, the BC Securities Commission, Canadian police, crypto trading platforms, and a blockchain analysis firm.

A key focus of Operation Avalanche is to identify compromised digital wallets on the Ethereum blockchain and alert their owners about the nature of the scam, which is referred to as 'approval phishing.'

Approval phishing scams deceive individuals into granting access to their crypto wallets, allowing scammers to directly steal funds.

Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool highlighted the critical need to disrupt such schemes and emphasized the importance of international law enforcement collaboration to recover stolen assets for victims.

The Secret Service has been intensifying its efforts against cryptocurrency-related illicit activities, having previously seized domains linked to the Russian exchange Garantex and frozen its assets.