Address poisoning

Address poisoning is a scam where someone sends you a tiny transfer from an address that looks like one you often use, hoping you copy it from your history and send money to the thief.

How it works

Scammers watch the blockchain to see who you send money to regularly. They generate an address whose first and last few characters match the real recipient while the middle differs. Then they send you a zero or near-zero transfer from it, so it shows up in your history.

Many wallets and explorers show addresses shortened, like 0x7a3f…9c1e. Next time you pay, you copy the "familiar" address from your history, see the matching start and end, and send the funds. The transaction cannot be undone.

The attack is especially common with stablecoins on Ethereum, Tron and other networks where token transfers are cheap and frequent. It does not hack your wallet; it tricks your attention. The only real defence is a habit of taking addresses from a trusted place.

Example with numbers

Every week you send 500 USDT to your exchange address 0x7a3f…9c1e. An hour after one transfer, your history shows an incoming 0 USDT from 0x7a3f…9c1e, but with a different middle. The next week you copy it from your history and lose the 500 USDT.

Common mistake

The key mistake is copying a recipient from your transaction history and checking only the start and end. Save verified addresses in your wallet's address book or the exchange's whitelist and take them only from there. Ignore and hide strange zero or dust incoming transfers and never interact with them.

Questions and answers

What is address poisoning in simple terms?

It is when a scammer plants a look-alike address in your transaction history, hoping you send money to it by mistake.

I got a 0 USDT transfer from an unknown address. What should I do?

Do not send anything to that address or interact with it. The transfer itself is harmless; copying that address later is the danger.

Can I get back money sent to a poisoned address?

Almost never, because blockchain transactions are final. Sometimes a stablecoin issuer freezes scammer funds, but you cannot count on it.

Address poisoning

How it works

Questions and answers

Related terms

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