Crypto trader loses $69 million to ‘address poisoning’ scam
A cryptocurrency trader has reportedly fallen victim to a sophisticated “address poisoning” scam, resulting in the loss of tens of millions of dollars.
Address poisoning is a type of fraud where scammers create fake accounts that mimic their victim’s online crypto address. They then send a small amount of currency to the victim, hoping that the victim will later accidentally send money to the fake address, according to crypto trading service Transak.
The public nature of blockchains makes it easy for scammers to find people’s crypto addresses and launch these phishing attacks. CertiK, a blockchain security firm, detected a transfer of $69.3 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) to an address linked to address poisoning. The victim’s crypto wallet now shows a 97% loss in assets, with the account value plummeting to just over $1.6 million.
