- Pink Drainer lost 10 ETH ($30,000) to an address poisoning scam, exploiting address similarities.
- Attackers mimicked Pink Drainer’s wallet address to deceive them into sending funds.
- The attack comes days after Pink Drainer announced ceasing operations.
In a surprising turn of events, the infamous cryptocurrency wallet-draining group known as Pink Drainer has fallen victim to an address poisoning scam, losing 10 ETH worth approximately $30,000.
The attack was flagged by crypto compliance platform MistTrack in an X post on July 7.
What happened?
Address poisoning scams exploit the similarity between legitimate wallet addresses and fraudulent ones.
In this case, attackers sent small amounts of crypto from a wallet with an address closely resembling that of Pink Drainer.
The goal was to trick Pink Drainer into inadvertently sending funds to the wrong address.
MistTrack explained that scammers often manipulate a few characters at the beginning or end of the address to make it appear similar to the target’s legitimate address.
MistTrack described how scammers employ bots to monitor transactions and identify opportunities. By mimicking parts of a legitimate address, they increase the likelihood that the victim will mistakenly send funds to the fraudulent address instead of the intended one.
In Pink Drainer’s case, the subtle similarity between the fake and legitimate addresses was sufficient to deceive the group into transferring 10 ETH.
Pink Drainer had announced ceasing activities
The incident comes shortly after Pink Drainer’s announcement of retiring its operations, having purportedly achieved its objective of pilfering over $85 million in crypto assets since July 2023, according to data from Dune Analytics.
While Pink Drainer has ceased its activities, the prevalence of similar wallet-draining groups such as Angel Drainer, Pussy Drainer, and Venom Drainer underscores ongoing threats in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Address poisoning scams highlight the importance of vigilance and adherence to security best practices like exercising caution when handling transactions by ensuring verification of the accuracy of recipient addresses before transferring funds.