Address Poisoning: Why Your Transaction History Is Lying to You
You are a careful user. You follow the standard advice: "Don't type addresses manually; copy-paste them to avoid typos." Scammers know this habit and have weaponized it against you. "Address Poisoning" is an attack that exploits your visual memory and laziness.
11/10/20251 min read
You are a careful user. You follow the standard advice: "Don't type addresses manually; copy-paste them to avoid typos." Scammers know this habit and have weaponized it against you. "Address Poisoning" is an attack that exploits your visual memory and laziness. It doesn't require hacking your wallet; it just requires tricking your eyes.
1. How the Attack Works
Blockchains are public. Scammers monitor the network for active users. If they see you frequently send USDC to a specific address (e.g., your exchange deposit address starting with 0x123... and ending in ...ABCD), they use software to generate a "vanity address" that looks almost identical.
The Lookalike: The scammer's address will also start with 0x123... and end with ...ABCD, but the middle characters will be different.
The Poison: They send a transaction of $0 (or a tiny amount like $0.01) from this lookalike address to your wallet.
2. The Mechanism of Error
The next time you want to deposit money to your exchange, you open your wallet history. You see the most recent transaction at the top of the list. You think, "Oh, that's my exchange address, I just used it." You copy that address and send your funds.
The Result: You just sent your crypto to the scammer. Because you only checked the first and last few characters, you didn't notice the middle was different.
3. How to Defend Yourself
Stop Copying from History: Never rely on your transaction history as a source of truth. It is a battlefield polluted by scammers.
Use an Address Book: Most wallets (MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom) allow you to save trusted addresses under names like "My Binance" or "Ledger Vault." Only copy from there.
Full Verification: If you must copy-paste, check every single character, or at least a significant portion of the middle string, not just the "head and tail."
Summary:
Your wallet history is not a safe log; it’s a public inbox where anyone can drop a fake letter. Treat every copy-paste action as a potential security threat.