Address Poisoning: The Unaware Transaction...

[Donk1]

There are times when we need to make quick transactions especially in situations of emergency or panic. In those moments our mindset gets fixated on being in a rush which as a result is very dangerous. Recently I replied to a discussion about this how it's not easy to make a wrong transaction pointing out that people don't often make wrong transactions. Still we do see things like dusting attacks. That's where scammers send a tiny fraction of Bitcoin to track a victim's wallet and figure out their identity the moment they make use of the dust. But then I came across this scam, which is called Address Poisoning. Check out these links and images: https://x.com/i/status/2080989581961560409),
 For years now the best advice when making a transaction has always been to check the first 4 or 3 digits or the last 4 digits of your address before you make a transaction. But now it has become a trap hackers set. As you all see on the image above, hackers can now generate look alike addresses that match a user's own perfectly, and to my understanding if we only focus on those first 4 and last 4, the middle letters or numbers could be changed without us knowing (as explained by Ledger Academy: https://www.ledger.com/academy/topics/security/what-are-address-poisoning-attacks-in-crypto-and-how-to-avoid-them).
My take on this is simple we should never be in a hurry when making transactions. Either way, it is much better to cross check the entire address before making a transaction just to ensure confirmation. Basically relying on just the first and last few letters isn't enough anymore, especially when a person is trying to make quick transactions out of specific situations, and it takes just one second to send your hard earned funds to the wrong person. Overall considering the possibility that anything can happen, we simply have to be much more vigilant with our transactions...

[BIT-BENDER]

 Laziness would be the reason why anyone would fall for this type of scam, but honestly I have my skepticism about this wallet poisoning, so this is just a question and anyone can answer it, in a case let's say electrum wallet and you do send out Bitcoin to a particular wallet, and in some cases you just go to your previous transaction to that address and get the wallet address directly from that particular transaction how possible is it that this hacker can get hold of your wallet not just that go into your transaction history and make edit to an already made transaction, let's not forget you can't even make such edit as the owner of the wallet, I will really like to know the possibility of this or are they (scammers) adding a different transaction into your transaction history.

By the way if you can actually get the address directly from the person or you probably pin it in conversation is the best way to avoid this type of scams.

[Slimzeee]

Gone are the naive days when you could just assume that addresses cannot be manipulated easily because they are random. If you are not aware, wallet addresses are random
Yes, they are random  but understand that people are ready to go to any length, employing every possible trick to rip you of your long, hard earned online assets. With brute force and vanity address generators, a lookalike wallet can indeed be created..
Now that you are aware, do well to be more cautious.
As always said, one can never be careful enough, especially in this modern age when generating prompts is as easy as ABC. Yet, one must always double check their proposed transaction address before sending any bitcoin, because that responsibility solely lies with you as the owner.  I also thank you, O.P., for bringing this to the notice of the Nigerian board.

[EL MOHA]

For years now the best advice when making a transaction has always been to check the first 4 or 3 digits or the last 4 digits of your address before you make a transaction. But now it has become a trap hackers set. As you all see on the image above, hackers can now generate look alike addresses that match a user's own perfectly, and to my understanding if we only focus on those first 4 and last 4, the middle letters or numbers could be changed without us knowing

This is exactly what the attacker wants from you, they want you to be lured into check just few characters of the address such that easily confirm this, I will be actually Frank with you most of the times, even checking up the address three times sometimes doesn’t help because one of the changes that you could see will be that the address will have just two or even one character change from your address and still have a valid check sum and this is actually very possible with a vanity address generator.

So just like the multiple threads here on the issue I will advice that:

1. Do not copy address from transaction history or even block explorer because this is the bait.
2. Always generate address from the recipient addresses or even copy it from there but while pasting beware of clipboard Malware again that can change your address copied too.

[Lembo69]

Scammers always wait for a small mistake, if you make a small mistake, they will get your complete information, it is always their time of rush, when someone rushes too much, they make some mistake right then, for this we should take some time to check and then make the transaction. If you copy the address, then after pasting that address, if possible, check it again because many times there are mistakes in copying. In this era of technology, it is very difficult to survive from scams, but if someone tries and is careful, then he will not be a victim of scams.

Sometimes scammers make such attempts that many people are defeated by them even after taking precautions. So it is better to take some time and understand and check well before making the transaction.

[Hatchy]

As you all see on the image above, hackers can now generate look alike addresses that match a user's own perfectly, and to my understanding if we only focus on those first 4

It's not a new thing, you can use vanity address generators to create custom addresses. So it would be easier for hackers to create an address that looks exactly like yours but with a few changes made at certain places you might not be looking at. Address poisoning is just on mean scammers use as there are many more. But one cannot be too careful, you can only make sure you don't fall victim of such attempts. You simply have to cross check your addresss before initiating a transaction and try your best not to be the type that simply copy paste addresses from their transaction history or tab as we can see here, that's exactly where these scammers hopes to catch their victims. Just be wise.

[Creeper0]

This is mainly due to haste. To confirm an address, always check the first and last few digits carefully and check the middle digits carefully. Although the starting and last digits can be changed, the middle digits cannot be changed yet, so checking the middle digits has also become important.

During Bitcoin transactions, try to copy the address from the wallet, if you have to copy the address from the transaction history, then do it carefully. To copy the address from the transaction history, copy the address from the old transaction history or try to remember the last amount of Bitcoin you transacted, see the amount to copy the address from the transaction history, if it is a transaction you made, then you can copy the address from there. No matter what steps you take during a hurry, there is a risk. But if you do it calmly, the risk is greatly reduced. So try to do the transactions calmly, try to refrain from making transactions in a hurry.