Crypto Address Poisoning Scams Drain $1.2 Million in March

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March 20, 2025 by Kashif Saleem

Crypto address poisoning scams stole over $1.2 million in March, exploiting victims through deceptive wallet addresses.
Deddy Lavid, CEO of Cyvers, warns that weak pre-transaction security enables phishing attacks to thrive.
Pig butchering scams caused $5.5 billion in losses, with 75% of victims losing over half their wealth.

In March, sophisticated crypto address poisoning scams drained over $1.2 million from unsuspecting investors, highlighting a troubling rise in phishing attacks. These scams trick victims into sending their funds to fraudulent wallet addresses that closely resemble their legitimate ones.

Address poisoning, also known as wallet poisoning, works by scammers sending small transactions to a target’s wallet. They use an address that mimics the victim’s frequently used ones, hoping the victim will mistakenly copy and paste it from their transaction history, ultimately transferring their assets to the fraudster instead.

This scheme has been growing rapidly since the start of the year. In February alone, address poisoning scams drained over $1.8 million from the industry.

Crypto Industry Lacks Real-Time Protections

The rise in phishing scams can be attributed to both the increasing sophistication of attackers and the lack of pre-transaction security measures, according to Deddy Lavid, co-founder and CEO of Cyvers. He emphasized the risks faced by institutions and individual investors:

More users and institutions are leveraging automated tools for crypto transactions, some of which may not have built-in verification mechanisms to detect poisoned addresses.”

Lavid pointed out that many wallets and platforms fail to implement real-time pre-transaction screening, which could flag suspicious addresses before transactions are completed. Unlike traditional fraud detection systems, crypto wallets often lack mechanisms to prevent these fraudulent transactions.

These phishing scams are proving to be a greater security threat than traditional hacks, as they manipulate victims into willingly sending funds rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities.

Pig Butchering Scams Are Another Major Concern

While address poisoning remains a major concern, the crypto industry has suffered far greater losses from another deceptive scheme—pig butchering scams. These schemes involve prolonged psychological manipulation, tricking investors into transferring their digital assets to fraudulent wallets.

According to Cyvers, pig butchering scams on the Ethereum network alone cost the industry over $5.5 billion across 200,000 identified cases in 2024. Alarmingly, 75% of victims lost over half of their net worth in these schemes, with men aged 30 to 49 being the most affected demographic.

Data from Cyvers reveals that in 35% of cases, scammers groom victims for one to two weeks, while 10% of scams involve grooming periods of up to three months before the victims ultimately send their assets.

The combination of address poisoning, pig butchering schemes, and other phishing attacks continues to shake investor confidence. Without widespread adoption of pre-transaction verification and stronger wallet security, experts warn that such scams will only escalate, causing further financial losses for users and institutions.

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