A shocking incident has recently occurred in the Web3 community. A user was scammed out of nearly 50 million USDT in less than an hour through a common but insidious "address poisoning" attack.

How does this type of scam work? Essentially—scammers generate a fake address that looks very similar to your target wallet address. How do they make it look similar? The first and last characters are almost identical, and the middle part is indistinguishable unless you look carefully. Many users, in a rush to transfer funds, don't bother to verify each character and simply confirm after a quick glance. As a result, the money flows into a stranger’s pocket.

This is not an isolated case. "Address poisoning" occurs across exchanges, wallet apps, and DEX interactions. As long as on-chain transfers are involved, this risk always exists. Industry insiders point out that the Web3 industry must be capable of completely eliminating such scams—from smart prompts at the wallet level, address verification at exchanges, to providing more human-readable address schemes at the blockchain layer.

Want to protect your assets? The most straightforward method is: take an extra look before transferring, preferably copy and paste instead of manual input, and double-check with the other party through other channels before key transactions. Technology can help, but ultimately, your own vigilance is the last line of defense.