This week, we bring you the latest updates and developments in the world of crypto compliance and investigations.
1. No Honour Among Thieves: Pink Drainer Falls Victim to Address Poisoning Scam
In a twist of poetic justice, Pink Drainer, a notorious crypto wallet-draining group, has been scammed themselves. The group lost 10 ETH (about $30k) to an “address poisoning” scam, illustrating that even experienced scammers can be outsmarted.
Address poisoning is a cunning scam technique where an attacker sends small amounts of cryptocurrency from a wallet with an address that closely resembles one of the target’s regular addresses. This trick aims to deceive the target into accidentally sending funds to the wrong address. Scammers utilise bots to monitor new transactions, creating addresses that share the same initial and final characters as the legitimate address, hoping the victim will mistakenly copy the scam address.
In this case, the attackers sent funds from an address almost identical to Pink Drainer’s previous wallet address. The ruse succeeded, and Pink Drainer inadvertently transferred 10 ETH to the fraudulent address.
Find out more here.
2. Binance set to fight address poisoning with new algorithm
Binance has developed a new algorithm to detect and prevent address poisoning scams. This algorithm identifies suspicious transfers, such as those with near-zero value, and flags them for further investigation. This initiative aims to enhance user security across Binance’s platforms.
Find out more here.
3. CoinMarketCap warns Hedera users about address poisoning
CoinMarketCap reported that an address poisoning victim lost $70k to cyber crooks in late June 2024.
Find out more here.
4. Metana explains address poisoning risk in smart contracts
Metana warns that address poisoning- a malicious and cynical practice which targets human fallibility when online- is a growing threat.
Find out more here.
5. GovInfoSecurity says crypto theft doubled
Blockchain hackers and scammers stole twice as much in the first half of 2024 than they did in the first half of 2023. 70% of the thefts for 2024 thus far were accounted for by just five hacks.
Find out more here.
