This wasn’t a smart-contract exploit.
No zero-day bug.
No complex hack.
It was something much simpler — and that’s what makes it scary.
Over just two months, Ethereum users lost around $62 million to a scam called address poisoning, according to blockchain security firm .
One bad copy-paste was all it took.
What address poisoning actually is (in plain English)
Crypto wallet addresses are long, ugly strings of letters and numbers. Nobody memorizes them. So we all do the same thing:
👉 copy an address
👉 paste it
👉 double-check the first few and last few characters
👉 hit send
Scammers know this.
Address poisoning works like this:
A scammer creates a wallet address that looks almost identical to a real one (same starting and ending characters).
They send a tiny transaction (sometimes worth pennies) to your wallet.
That fake address now shows up in your transaction history.
Later, when you copy an address from your history to send funds, you accidentally copy the scammer’s address instead of the real one.
The money goes straight to them. No undo button.
Nothing breaks. Nothing fails.
You just send your funds… to the wrong place.
How people lost $62 million
Two massive incidents exposed how dangerous this has become:
L
December: One victim mistakenly sent nearly $50 million after copying a poisoned address.
January: Another user lost 4,556 ETH (about $12.25 million) the same way.
Different wallets.
Same mistake.
Same outcome.
ScamSniffer traced both cases and confirmed they weren’t hacks — just poisoned transaction histories being trusted too much.
Why this scam is exploding now
Address poisoning has existed for years.
So why the sudden spike?
Two big reasons:
1. Ethereum transactions got cheaper
After recent network upgrades, sending tiny “dust” transactions became much cheaper on .
That means scammers can now:
Spam thousands of wallets
Seed fake addresses everywhere
Do it cheaply and at scale
Lower fees = higher scam volume.
2. Humans haven’t changed
We still:
Trust our transaction history
Only check a few characters
Assume past activity is safe
The scam works because it fits naturally into how people already use wallets.
Why this scam is so effective
It looks legitimate — the address is in your own history
No malware required — no phishing link, no fake website
Transfers are final — once sent, funds are gone
Whales get hit hardest — one mistake can move millions
It’s boring.
It’s subtle.
And it’s devastating.
How to protect yourself (this matters)
You don’t need advanced tools — just better habits.
Do this instead:
❌ Never copy addresses from transaction history
✅ Save trusted addresses manually or use ENS names
✅ Double-check more than just the first and last characters
✅ Use address whitelists if your wallet supports them
✅ Send a small test transfer and verify the receiver carefully
✅ Be extra cautious after receiving random tiny transactions
If you see unexplained “dust” appear in your wallet — slow down. That’s often the warning sign.
The bigger lesson
This wasn’t a failure of cryptography.
It was a failure of UX meeting human behavior.
As Ethereum scales and becomes cheaper to use, scams like this don’t disappear — they multiply. Security can’t rely on users being perfect. Wallets, interfaces, and protocols need to assume people will copy-paste, rush, and trust familiar screens.
Until then, address poisoning will keep working — quietly, efficiently, and expensively.
