Address poisoning, the scam that plants itself in your own history
A tiny transfer from an address that looks like yours, waiting for the day you copy it by mistake. How to spot it and starve it.
Address poisoning is cheap, quiet and it keeps paying off for the people behind it. A scammer watches the chain for wallets that send often, then generates an address that starts and ends with the same characters as one you use. A tiny amount or a fake token arrives from that look alike. From then on it sits in your history, waiting.
Next time you send, you open the history, copy what looks like your usual address and paste it. The first four characters match. The last four match. The middle does not, and the coins go to the scammer.
Where it hits most
It shows up most on chains with cheap transfers and popular stablecoins, like Tron and the Ethereum style networks. If you move USDT regularly, assume you are on someone's list.
How to starve it
- Never copy an address from your transaction history. Use your wallet address book, or copy it fresh from the source.
- Read the whole address, not just the ends. The middle is where the trick lives.
- When the amount matters, send a small test first.
- Treat zero value transfers and tokens you never asked for as a warning sign.
How SwapAnonymously keeps it out of the picture
Every swap gets a brand new deposit address, used once, shown on your swap page with a QR code. There is never a reason to copy a deposit address from history, because you should never reuse one. Paste your receiving address from your wallet's receive screen, not from an old transaction. More on this in our guide on clipboard malware.
Quick answers
Can address poisoning take coins out of my wallet?
No. It cannot move anything. It only works if you copy the fake address yourself and send to it.
Should I hide those tiny transfers?
Hiding spam tokens and dust is fine, and many wallets can do it. Just never interact with them and never copy an address out of that history.
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