Bitcoin Forum

It is called address poisoning.

I do not know if anyone has brought this on this local board before, but this is happening to me repeated anytime I send money from Binance. And also when I am sending money to Binance (as the scammer knows my Binance address already. Even if I send $300, it happens.

I think those scammers are targeting exchange users, like those using Binance. People can easily track the addresses that Biannce is generating which they give their users. I hope you all know that ERC20, BEP20, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum and many other chains are using the same addresses. These makes the addresses easier targets for hackers.


What happened
I do not want to reveal my Binance address which will be the reason I will not show the proof but people on this forum on English board know how this is real. You will see many scammers address that ended with your Binance address, continuously sending you 0.000357 USDT to 0.0005 USDT with the addresses similar to your Binance account address as you know USDT is a token on those chains. The rate this is happening to me continuously has increased and it happened again yesterday.


The scammer's target
The scammer's will generate address similar to your Binance account or the exchange account that you are using because the address are fixed and not changing like bitcoin address on noncustodial wallet. They will generate as many as possible addresses similar to yours in a way if you only look at the characters ending your exchange account address and the scammer's address, their last 7 characters are the same. The hacker is thinking that if you want to send coins to your exchange address next time, that you will just copy and paste his (the scammer's) address on your wallet directly which is easier instead of going to copy it on your exchange,l account, thereby copying a scammer's address instead but thinking it is yours, using it to send money to the scammer, thinking you are using it to send money to your Binance or exchange account.

This is one of a transaction I made just of 28 November.
On the process of proceeding with my transactions there on Binance I was sent the congratulatory that I have just received a token of 0.01324893 USDT and was asked to create a Red Packet to win more.
This was even before I successfully made my transaction but getting the new notification on my wallet on the process, I had to cancel the transition in the first place, went to check if the affirmed stated token reflected to by Binance exchange wallets balance which it didn't.
I proceeded again and same still pooped up to me then I don't have to be convinced anymore that the system is phishy and strategies of scammers.

I was supposed to make this a thread but I felt it was irreverent.
Thanks OP for bringing this up to my awareness.

I also make use of Binance but never experienced anything that has to do with this, i also ensure that I don't leave my bitcoin address open publicly or any other chain addresses am having just for privacy purpose, but I've heard some other people saying thesame thing happening with them in situations like this, i think this is more about the exchange in particular or the platforms we use that host our wallet addresses that these scammers got them from.


What a serious trick is this, we have to be careful with anything that has to do with copy and paste, in most cases, i ensure to check the first five or six characters and the last ones as well to make sure that they tally with the ones am sending to, it's also better that we always copy directly from the wallet address on the exchange and then verify it was the inded address copied and paste.

I have not experience this though i use binance but i have not been really observant and this is really bad, just thinking of the number binance customers who may have fallen victim of this scam and this is why is always advisable to get your address from your wallet or exchange directly even if its not faster but the secure means is always the best.
Have this not gotten to the notice of binance because in a nutshell this was from their flaws ?

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@EluguHcman, the image and link in your post needs to be restructured

Mr EluguHcman me sef don still experience this same thing exactly the wey wen you talk am, na so e take happen to me, though I still they see the USDT for my binance balance but I never try to withdraw am before, so this na the reason why dem dey send us that message. Thank you very much baba Charles-Tim for enlightening us how this scam take dey work so that we no go fall victim to those scammers. The wey this scammers take dey generate new update dey shock me oo, before you go know now fem don make another one wey bad pass this one, I know no weda dem no like the progress of cryptocurrency.

Na why anytime I wan do transaction I no dey like any distraction. Even if sleep dey my eyes, e go clear because the rate this scammers dey advance with their scamming method is alarming. Whenever I want to send coins, no matter how small e be, I no dey feel lazy to go copy address directly from the exchange I'm sending to. And if na person I want send I go tell am to verify the address again before I send. Sadly, even copying directly from exchange account no longer dey save again because some keyboard app developers now na thief dem be too. You go copy address and dem go replace am with address wey dey similar to the one wey you copy. In most cases, the first and last digit or letter go be the same thing and if you proceed without paying attention Omo you don enta one chance be that. We just need to dey careful when sending our asset because anything wey you don send is no refundable.

In fact dis scam matter no be play play thing, who dem never scam before fit no too understand the feeling of how e de be. Thanks OP for bringing this your experience to share with us for here, so dat dos of us wey never experience di scam attempt go know how fa. Scams for exchanges, even for wallets don too plenty now, for beginners and help board, where I go make post, one OP de share im experience on how scammers de impersonate trust wallet, wey im de use to de send am phishing mail, say make im do kyc. Imagine KYC for none custodial wallet, plenty newbies go fall for dat kind scam, including dis scam wey senior man don share for us.

That's a good decision and if every bitcoiners can always try as much as possible in giving attention to whenever they are trying to make a transaction, the rate of loss of fund due to any kind of format will be reduced and people will also have no reason of making some silly mistakes while performing their transaction, making a slightly mistake in cryptocurrency could cost alot of havoc including loosing the entire fund, this is what many should understand that it's a clear difference between using a commercial bank and using bitcoin for making payments transactions.

When it comes to doing some kind of transaction it is important to pay attention and be more focused. This is because there are possobilities that we could make a slight mistake on the process. Even without these scam of a thing, we can easily release payment or send to a wrong address etc. My brother as those website they do 5 times confirmation nah so we suppose they do to. Anytime we wan do transaction like this, make we confirm am like three times before we press the send button. E no go make sense say after all the struggle we con carry our hard earn money go dash exchange or another person.

It is good that you brought this up op, so that guys go know wetin dey sup abt these scammers wey dey search for means to collect people money. Although, me I never experience this before but na eyes opener to guys wey dey expose their wallet anyhow.

Another lesson be say people no need to dey lazy about things concerning their account. To go copy your address from your exchange wallet wey you want send coins to is more reliable, no joke with am because if the money don go another scammer wallet, dem no fit send am back.

E don tey wey scammers dey do this thing, e make sense as you post am here, e go help those who no too know about this method of scam, make dem sabi am, so them no go fall as one of the victims.

E dey very bad to save your wallet address somewhere or to dey copy am from transaction history; if na non-custodial wallet, open your wallet and get your address or generate new one, because to dey reuse address no too make sense, if na exchange account, log in go copy the address, sometimes sev exchanges go change deposit address for their customers and if you no log in to copy your address, you go fit send coins to the old address, and na only their support go fit help you if something like that happens

I understand what you are saying. Although I have not noticed it, but I am glad you noticed it, and that is also an important thing because we will learn from it. Just like the way Bitcoin is pumping so are scammers strategizing way to swindle people's money.

But one thing I will like to ask how can one avoid this thing you have just explained? Is it by copying our bitcoin address directly from exchange before sending to depositor?

Yes. Not to copy the address that you sent coin to last, thinking it is your exchange address, but not knowing an attacker has sent you small amount of the coin like $0.00001 of the coin with similar address to yours, just for you to mistakenly copy the address, thinking it is your exchange address.

But not only exchanges, also it applies also to your wallet.

I understand you quit well. But one more thing I would like to ask is that can bitcoin be hacked from someone exchange wallet? like binance, kucoin or mexc by wallet address or by releasing your bitcoin address? Or apart from the case you explained above is there other way scammers can attempt to hijack fund from a wallet? Because the way bitcoin is pumping we really need to be careful not to fall to this scammers web.

Very likely, especially on exchanges accounts that do not have 2FA security protection.

Also through clipboard malware. That is why it is good to check and recheck the address that you copy and paste. Making sure it is not belonging to an attacker. Especially checking the middle characters.

Clipboard malware should be avoided. Malware generally should be avoided. Hacks are through malware.

Binance na one of the big exchanges so I no go dey squrprised say this kind of thing go dey take place there, people just need to be very careful,  the truth be say scammer they everywhere expecially the exchange they find who dem fir get. But people just dey carefully when dealing with an exchange.  The exchange is not a safe place to store bitcoin and when trading in an exchange it is important to check the trading rating of every trader if it is a reputable one can make deals with, checking the trading feed back helps to  know if you are on a safer side to trade or not.

There is a recent topic that have a link to a news about how address poisoning which we are talking about is used to drain people's wallet. You can also read about it:

Do not take address poisoning as a joke, it is real. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5476456.msg63266169#msg63266169)

It is also good to check and recheck the address we are sending coins to, making sure it is correct. Not that an address should be similar, but the same to the address we are seeing coins to.

@Charles-Tim don already reply you, but i go like add say make you no dey keep Bitcoins for your exchange wallet, even if you no fall victim to hacks, something fit happen to the exchange and e go fit collapse, thus anybody wey been get money for their platform go lose am; your money suppose dey your non-custodial wallet.
You dey do well, it is good that you are sharing this stuffs here, e go help plenty people wey no too sabi this method wey scammers they use. Clipboard hijacking malware dey very dangerous and scammers fit use am take change wallet address wey person copy, so e dey very good to triple-check address wey you wan send funds to.

What I have understand so far about those scammer monitoring our addresses is that whenever you save your address somewhere and you don't regularly go to exchange to check if the address is correct, then you don't have mindsets that someone else could send you usdt to you account or mostly when you have lot of funds in your address and regularly perform transaction. As the owner of the address you don't just have to copy your address from a previously sent tx because the scammer is the last person who sent you usdt or ant other assets and you would think is the right address so before you knew it you would end up copying and sending to that address.

Advice to anyone who scammers are monitoring; Don't save your address somewhere else anytime you wanna send payment go to your binance or any exchange you are using to copy it back even as that before copying or after copying when you paste the address where you want to send out payment, always go back to the exchange and thoroughly look your address before hitting the send button otherwise it could be that scammer manipulate and have their address there for you to send give them.

Usually where I do noticed same thing is when even I swap token I will end up having scam token with fake dollar value displaying in my wallet and if you aren't careful enough and you greedily went to swap the token you would endup sweeping your account due to phishing token they sent to your address. But when I noticed it I don't pay attention to it again.