In an ironic twist, the hacking group Pink Drainer fell victim to an address poisoning scam, resulting in a loss of 10 Ether, equivalent to $30,000. This incident, detailed by crypto compliance platform MistTrack on July 7, highlights the persistent dangers in the crypto space, even for those who perpetrate fraud themselves.
The Sting of Address Poisoning
Pink Drainer, a notorious cybercriminal group, lost 10 Ether to a scammer’s wallet in late June after falling for a cunning trick known as address poisoning. In this type of scam, the attacker sends a small amount of cryptocurrency from a wallet with an address almost identical to the target’s, differing by only one symbol.
This tactic is designed to trick the target into sending a large sum of money to the scammer’s address, mistakenly believing it is their own.
How the Scam Worked
According to MistTrack, the scammers used bots to track new transactions and generate addresses with first and last characters similar to the target’s address. The goal is for the victim to inadvertently paste the scam address instead of the intended one. In Pink Drainer’s case, they fell for this trick, resulting in a loss of 10 ETH.
This scam occurred just a month after Pink Drainer announced their retirement on May 17, having stolen over $75 million worth of crypto assets. Analysis from Dune Analytics shows that Pink Drainer embezzled $85.3 million worth of crypto in July 2023 alone. Despite their expertise in scamming others, they too fell prey to the very schemes they orchestrated.
This incident serves as a stark reminder to Bitcoin and other crypto investors to meticulously cross-check wallet addresses before making transactions to avoid falling victim to address poisoning scams.
Read Also: This Week in Crypto Hacks: Major Breaches Lead to $41 Million Loss
Pink Drainer’s misfortune is a valuable lesson for all crypto users. Be cautious, be informed, be secure.
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