What is Address Poisoning?

Address poisoning exploits the habit of copying addresses from your history. Attackers generate an address whose first and last characters match one you use, then send you a tiny or zero-value transaction so their look-alike address appears in your activity. Later, if you copy the address from history instead of the real source, you send funds straight to the scammer.

This matters because crypto transactions are irreversible. One careless copy-paste can send an entire payment to an attacker who did nothing but pollute your history.

Example: you regularly send to an address starting 0xA1B2 and ending F9E0; the attacker’s poisoned address shares those same edges, and if you glance only at the ends, the two look identical.

Safety note: never copy addresses from transaction history. Verify the full address, character by character, or use a saved, verified address book entry. Send a small test amount first for large transfers. Beware clipboard-hijacking malware too, which swaps a copied address for the attacker’s. Related terms include wallet address, clipboard hijacker, transaction hash, and phishing.