How a single copy-paste mistake cost a user $50M in USDt

A user lost nearly $50 million in USDt after copying a poisoned wallet address from transaction history, showing how subtle address spoofing can trick users.

A single transaction error led to one of the largest onchain losses seen this year, after a user mistakenly sent nearly $50 million in USDt to a scam address in a classic address poisoning attack.

According to onchain investigator Web3 Antivirus, the victim lost 49,999,950 USDt (USDT) after copying a malicious wallet address from their transaction history.

Address poisoning scams rely on look-alike wallet addresses being inserted into a victim’s transaction history via small transfers. When victims later copy an address from their transaction history, they may unknowingly select the scammer’s lookalike address instead of the intended recipient.

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