Crypto users lose $700,000 to deal with addiction scams.

an Ethereum The user was victim of an address addiction scam on Sunday, losing $700,000 worth of USDT Stablecoin.

Experts warn that this rising form of fraud is easy to be victimized if you are not extremists in fully checking the addresses you are sending funds.

What is Address Addict?

Because of the addiction of the disease, the malicious actor creates addresses that appear surprisingly similar to the addresses the victim has recently exchanged. The attacker then sends a small amount of token to the victim. The goal is to deceive the attacker’s address to think it is the address they just exchanged with.

“Suppose your deposit address is 0x112234556677889900. In your wallet, it would look like 0x1122 … 9900.” Decryption. “The scammers then create an address with public key 0x1122aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa9900. That’s not, but it still looks like 0x1122, but in the wallet or (on)etelsker, I think it’s the correct address while belonging to a scammer.”

On Sunday, a malicious attacker sent a transaction of 0 USDT from his wallet. Binance A wallet where the victim sent a test transaction of 10 USDT just seconds ago.

“It is likely that the victim has copied what appears to be a legitimate address from the transaction history. Decryption.

The scammers use specialized software to generate thousands of wallet addresses that match commonly used deposit addresses, in this case Binance wallets, added Peckshield.

“It’s all automated. They use spray-and-play tactics and blow up thousands of fake transactions,” explained Hakan Unal, senior blockchain scientist at security company Cyvers. “Even if a mere 0.1% drops, hitting one high-value wallet is worth it. Very low effort, high reward.”

This is why the victim sent 699,990 USDT to the attacker. Shortly after receiving the funds, blockchain research firm Amlbot reported Decryptionthe scammer swapped the USDT for DAI to prevent Tether from freezing the funds.

It is decentralized StablecoinDai cannot freeze funds related to malicious activities, Amlbot said like a tether with USDT. It appears that the scammers then handed over the funds to multiple wallets to hide the truck.

Dealing with the spread of addiction

Address addiction scams are on the rise, Cyber ​​warned Decryption. Last year, one crypto trader lost more than $70 million due to an address addiction scam. Most recently, on Friday, the victim lost $467,000 worth of DAI after falling into fraud.

Luckily, they can avoid it by paying special attention when transferring funds.

“We recommend that users always perform double or triple verification of the full wallet address before they begin a transfer,” a Peckshield spokesperson said. Decryption. “Don’t trust truncated addresses (e.g. 0x123 … ABC) – Always request address visibility. Perform character-by-character verification when copying deposit addresses.”

“Cross-referring to all transactions of blockchain explorers like Etherscan for additional confirmation,” the spokesman added, “Do not copy addresses from transaction history or unverified messages.”