Etherscan, a blockchain explorer, has disabled the display of zero-value token transfers on its website to deter “address poisoning” attacks, which have been targeting unsuspecting users. Address poisoning is a type of crypto scam where attackers send tokens with near-zero or no value to users’ addresses to “poison” them. Afterward, the transaction is recorded in the wallet’s history and can be selected when making transfers, tricking users into sending coins to the scam address by mistake.
To prevent this, Etherscan is asking users to manually switch on the display from the website’s settings page. While the scam is classified as phishing, unwanted nonfungible tokens can potentially compromise an address through interactions. Ledger, a blockchain hardware wallet firm, recommends users double-check each character of the destination address when sending crypto and hide their unsolicited NFT collections upon receipt.
