Address poisoning is a social-engineering tactic that takes advantage of how people recognise long wallet addresses. An attacker sends a small transaction from an address that has similar beginning or ending characters to a legitimate address. If that address later appears in a transaction history, it can look familiar enough to be copied by mistake.
Why visual familiarity is risky
Wallet addresses are long by design. Most interfaces shorten them, and most people compare only a few characters at the start or end. That is exactly the habit an attacker is trying to exploit. A transaction history entry is evidence that an address interacted with your wallet; it is not proof that the address is a trusted destination.
Use a safer sending routine
- Obtain the destination address from a trusted source each time, rather than copying it from history.
- Compare the full address when practical, or verify it through a saved address book or trusted out-of-band channel.
- For a new or high-value destination, send a small test transaction first and confirm receipt independently.
- Review the network as well as the address; matching text on the wrong network can still lead to loss.
Keep history in context
Unexpected dust transactions, unfamiliar token entries, and lookalike addresses should be treated as noise, not prompts to act. Hide or ignore suspicious entries where your wallet supports it, and do not interact with unknown assets merely to remove them. Careful address verification is a small extra step that can prevent an irreversible mistake.
This article is for general information only and is not investment, legal, or financial advice.