Researchers have concluded cryptocurrency accounts that are connected with $ 162 million in losses as part of a newly famous public-private initiative that is launched by Chainalysis.
The project, Operation Spincaster, has already carried out a series of operational sprints in six countries (the US, the UK, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands and Australia).
Operation Spincaster concerned 100 partners, including 12 agencies in the public sector and 17 crypto exchanges.
7000 leads identified, $ 162 million losses in crypto -wamid
Cryptocurrency Transaction Research Firm Chainalysis is the leader of the project.
In a blog post published on July 18, the company said that the initial operation Spincaster Sprints used usable intelligence from the telemetry of the company.
Chainalysis has identified thousands of compromised crypto -portfolios using his crypto research solution.
This led the researchers to follow more than 7000 leads, with regard to about $ 162 million losses.
“These leads were used to close accounts, grab money and build intelligence to prevent future scams,” Chainalysis added.
In one of the sprints, Operation Spincaster Partners could contact a victim directly to warn them of a continuous scam, so that the victim would take the preventive action under the chain by withdrawing the approval before the scammer could steal a six -digit sum.
The rise of approval phishing
Chainalysis explained that approval phishing is a popular tactic criminals to steal funds through different scams, such as fake -Cyppto apps and romantic scams.
The typical phishing technique of approval includes a scammer who cheats on his victim to sign a malignant blockchain transaction that allows the address of the scammer to publish specific tokens in the victim’s wallet. The scammer then left the address of the victim of those tokens.
Chainalysis has reported that more than $ 2.7 billion has been lost due to delivery approval phishing since May 2021.
A groundbreaking initiative
In commentary on the operation, Celestino Calabrese said, acting head of illegal financing threat at the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), said that the UK Sprint of Operation Spincaster helped in identifying more than 230 British victims and at least £ 33 million are discovered in the funds.
The Criminal Cyber Intelligence team of the Spanish Guardia Civil was another partner of Operation Spincaster. A civilian spokesperson for Guardia said that the initiative was “groundbreaking” because of the very first collaboration between “important domestic fairs, advanced research units for technology from the Guardia Civil and researchers of Kettingalysis.”
“The Web3 landscape offers evolving challenges, and the cooperation between public-private sector is of the utmost importance to tackle them. In addition to the potential identified victims and actions that have been taken, the two-day cooperation effort has yielded invaluable lessons that will enormously influence our current research work,” said the spokesman.
The Calabrese of the NCA said that the agency “will continue to offer support to current investigations, so that the public is kept safe for damage and are directed for damage, regardless of their location.”
Operation Spincaster made up of operation -disruption
Operation Spincaster is a global expansion of the disruption of the operation, an operational sprint chainalysis researchers performed at the Calgary Police Service in March 2024.
Sergeant Danny Leong from the Calgary Police Service Blockchain Investigation Team said that this first operation made the identification of more than 770 people possible, of which 119 Canadians, as victims of cryptocurrency fraud, with an estimated loss of $ 59 million.
“Through this workshop, the participating organizations have quickly taken action to inform the affected persons to prevent further victimization,” he added.
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