Bitcoin Forum

Economy => Scam Accusations => Topic started by: zasad@ on January 13, 2023, 10:20:44 AM



Title: Address poisoning scams
Post by: zasad@ on January 13, 2023, 10:20:44 AM
https://metamask.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/11967455819035-Address-poisoning-scams
Address poisoning is an attack vector that, in contrast to other scams — which often use methods that have served many scammers so well, such as unlimited token approvals, phishing for your Secret Recovery Phrase, etc. — relies on user carelessness and haste above all else.

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This is not a new type of scam, but one more reminder will not be superfluous.


Title: Re: Address poisoning scams
Post by: Rikafip on January 13, 2023, 10:59:02 AM
There's been a lot of talk about it lately and a couple of my friends received those type of transactions as well but I haven't so far, maybe because I very rarely touch altcoins so I am not the good target (I guess they look for very active addresses).

At first this tactic looks incredibly far fetched and not very likely to work as who would copy his own address from transaction history (that never even crossed my mind) but then again when I thought of all the ways people lose money I wouldn't be surprised if some fall for this, no matter how stupid it may seem. In the end, if it doesn't work no one would even try it but as we can see, its been spreading around.


Title: Re: Address poisoning scams
Post by: Charles-Tim on January 13, 2023, 11:38:09 AM
Since when it has been happening for over a month, Metamask just notified their users recently.

What are Address Poisoning Scams? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5433343.msg61556293#msg61556293)
Alert to Trust Wallet users: There's an ongoing address spam, be more cautious. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5426585.msg61408038#msg61408038)
I got scammed out of 100000 dollars by fake 0 dollars withdrawal on BSC (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5425022.0)
Someone sent ERC20 from my cold storage (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5425735.0) :)


Title: Re: Address poisoning scams
Post by: aioc on January 13, 2023, 02:51:12 PM
https://metamask.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/11967455819035-Address-poisoning-scams
Address poisoning is an attack vector that, in contrast to other scams — which often use methods that have served many scammers so well, such as unlimited token approvals, phishing for your Secret Recovery Phrase, etc. — relies on user carelessness and haste above all else.

__
This is not a new type of scam, but one more reminder will not be superfluous.
This is the fifth or sixth times I've seen this warning not only here in Bitcointalk but also on other article sites but I keep sharing it and I keep bumping it because I've seen some people getting scammed because of this it may not be new but still many investors do not know this scheme, the most popular now is asking you to link your wallet to one site by providing your passphrase or private keys, they will keep doing this because many people coming are still ignorant of this, so the next move after not giving your private keys is to avoid using your transaction history to copy your address.


Title: Re: Address poisoning scams
Post by: Stalker22 on January 13, 2023, 09:12:52 PM
Yes. The idea of a scam that depends on the victim copying addresses from their transaction history may seem far-fetched and unlikely to succeed, but people lose money in all kinds of ways. Some people will most likely fall for it if they're careless and stupid enough. I do not think we should give this too much thought. This is not the type of scam that can happen to anyone. As they say, a fool and his money are easily parted.


Title: Re: Address poisoning scams
Post by: robelneo on January 13, 2023, 11:57:10 PM
Yes. The idea of a scam that depends on the victim copying addresses from their transaction history may seem far-fetched and unlikely to succeed, but people lose money in all kinds of ways. Some people will most likely fall for it if they're careless and stupid enough. I do not think we should give this too much thought. This is not the type of scam that can happen to anyone. As they say, a fool and his money are easily parted.


Yes, that's specific to people who are doing this I have this feeling that scammers have done research if some people are doing this and they gamble from random addresses, but still, awareness is the key, and this awareness should be posted on as many information platforms, we just never the character and the carelessness of people investing in Cryptocurrency and many of these are careless people, who do not do research on how scammers work.


Title: Re: Address poisoning scams
Post by: Pmalek on January 14, 2023, 07:46:32 AM
There's been a lot of talk about it lately and a couple of my friends received those type of transactions as well but I haven't so far, maybe because I very rarely touch altcoins so I am not the good target (I guess they look for very active addresses).
The scammers surely have some sort of list of addresses that are actively monitored. When such an address makes a transaction, the address poisoning scam follows soon after. Sometimes just a few seconds after the genuine transaction. It must be an automated service.

At first this tactic looks incredibly far fetched and not very likely to work as who would copy his own address from transaction history (that never even crossed my mind) but then again when I thought of all the ways people lose money I wouldn't be surprised if some fall for this, no matter how stupid it may seem.
A few weeks after this new scheme became known, I read a report that mentioned that $1.5 million had already been scammed that way. It's even more now. Considering that other scams bring in hundreds of millions sometimes, it doesn't sound like a lot. Still, it proves that people are falling for it. It's enough for the scammers to continue looking for new or old victims. 


Title: Re: Address poisoning scams
Post by: yhiaali3 on January 14, 2023, 09:47:00 AM
At first I thought it was the same as the Hijack clipboard virus, but when I read the article it turned out that it is completely different.

No virus here just a rudimentary scam for lazy people copying addresses from their wallet history, it all depends on user carelessness when copying wrong address from history.

The attackers send a zero transaction to a random wallet and wait for some idiot to copy the address (which is now in the transaction history) and send them the coins.