What is address poisoning?
DefinitionAddress poisoning is a scam in which an attacker plants a look-alike address in your transaction history, hoping you will copy it the next time you send. The fake address matches the first and last characters of one you really use, so a quick glance misses it.
How an address poisoning attack works
An address poisoning attack starts with attackers watching public blockchains for wallets that move stablecoins or other valuable tokens. When they spot one, they generate an address whose start and end match an address you recently sent to or received from. Computers can produce such look-alike addresses cheaply.
They then send a tiny amount, a zero-value token transfer or a fake token from that address to your wallet. Now the look-alike sits in your history right next to the real one. If you later copy the recipient from your history, your funds go to the attacker, and a confirmed blockchain transfer can’t be reversed.
Why it fools careful people
Most people check an address by comparing its first and last few characters, and poisoning is designed to pass exactly that check. Wallets and explorers also shorten long addresses with an ellipsis in the middle, which hides the part that differs.
- The fake address appears in your own history, so it feels familiar
- The amount is zero or tiny, so you may not notice the transfer at all
- It is especially common with USDT on Tron and EVM networks, where large stablecoin transfers are frequent
How to protect yourself
A few habits defeat address poisoning almost completely:
- Never copy a recipient from your transaction history; copy it from the source, such as the exchange’s deposit page or the person you are paying
- Compare the whole address, not just the start and end
- Save trusted recipients or use a handle instead of pasting addresses
- Treat unexpected zero-value or tiny incoming transfers as a warning sign
- If you send a small test first, copy the address again from the original source for the main transfer
Address poisoning checks in Waletifi
Before you confirm a transfer, Waletifi’s review screen warns you when the destination looks like an address you used before but isn’t the same one. You can also send to an @handle, so you don’t copy addresses at all, and you get a clear warning if the address behind a handle has changed since your last transfer.
