Why Address Poisoning Detection Matters
What is address poisoning and how Nikiwa handles it and why it is important to detect.
Securing Your Crypto Wallets
Your cryptocurrency wallet is your gateway to the blockchain. Properly securing it is essential for protecting your digital assets from theft and loss.
1. What is Address Poisoning?
Address poisoning is a scam method where attackers modify an address you have previously interacted with often by changing one or two characters and send you small transactions from this fake address. The goal is to trick you into using the poisoned address in future transactions, leading to your funds being stolen.
2. Why is It Important?
Because poisoning targets addresses you already trust, you might think, “I’ve interacted with this address many times, so it must be safe.” This false sense of security can lead you to copy and paste the poisoned address and accidentally send a large amount of funds to a scammer.
3. How to Protect Yourself from Address Poisoning?
- Manually Verify Addresses: Always double check the address before every transaction, even if it looks familiar.
- Use Nikiwa for Safer Interactions: Instead of manually checking each time, save trusted addresses in Nikiwa’s Address Book and benefit from its poisoning detection feature. Nikiwa alerts you when a similar but slightly altered address is detected.
4. How to Check Addresses Using Nikiwa?
Step 1: You should save a safe address to the address book.
Address book allows users to save and label trusted or frequently used addresses for faster and safer future searches. Also you can detect address poisonings.
Address Saving Example:
- A query is made using an address.
- Hover over the address and click the "Save" button.
- Assign a label to the address so it can be easily recognized later.
- You can view the saved address in the Address Book section. (Address Book button is at the left bottom of the page.)
Step 2: Check the address poisoning
If a wallet address has been previously recorded in the address book, and a user searches for a slightly modified version (e.g., changing the one character), the system can detect it as a poisoned address.
- Warning Triggered: The platform shows a “Poisoning Alert”, indicating that the address does not exactly match the known safe record and may be a phishing or copycat attempt.
- Purpose: This prevents users from interacting with addresses that mimic trusted contracts or wallets.
- NOTE: First address should be saved before poisoning.
Example:
