Attention: Address Copying Error Cost $50 Million

The cryptocurrency market is as open to fraud as it is to opportunities for investors. One significant recent event involved an investor losing approximately 50 million dollars worth of Tether (USDT) to scammers due to a simple address verification mistake. This incident brings to the forefront an important issue that requires attention in the crypto world.

The event was shared by Lookonchain, which analyzes blockchain data. A user with the address 0xcB80, as they usually do, performed a test transfer and became a target for scammers. The user initially sent an amount of 50 USDT to their wallet to verify the accuracy of the address. The successful completion of this transaction misled the investor, causing them to feel relieved.

However, as soon as the scammers saw the user's test transaction, they sprang into action. The user created a fake wallet that had the same address as the one used in the test transaction, but it belonged to the scammer. This operation is known as address poisoning in the crypto world, and many wallet interfaces increase such frauds by obscuring the middle part of the address with three dots.

When the user copied the address again from the transaction history, they only focused on the first and last four digits. As a result of this faulty verification, a remaining 49,999,950 USDT was sent directly to the fake address controlled by the scammer. Since this transaction was confirmed on the blockchain, the chance of recovery was eliminated.

Experts note that such fraud cases are particularly common in large transfers. In cryptocurrency transfers, it is crucial to check the entire address, use a whitelist if possible, and avoid copying addresses from transaction history. Otherwise, a single mistake can lead investors to suffer losses amounting to millions of dollars.