Address Poisoning

Address poisoning is a social engineering attack that targets how people copy and reuse crypto wallet addresses. An attacker sends a tiny amount of crypto, a worthless token, or even a zero-value transaction from an address that looks similar to one you have used before, often matching the first and last few characters. The goal is to make that fake address appear in your wallet or block explorer history, where you might later copy it by mistake.

It matters because blockchain transactions are usually irreversible: if you send funds to the poisoned address, the attacker controls them and recovery is unlikely. For example, if you often send USDT to a business partner, a scammer may create an address that starts and ends like your partner’s and then “poison” your history with it. A safer habit is to verify the full address, use saved contacts or address books, send a small test transaction for new recipients, and avoid copying addresses directly from recent transaction lists.