- Pink Drainer has lost funds after falling victim to an address-poisoning scam
- Scammers stole 10 ETH through this method
- The wallet drainer had announced that it’s planning to wind down its scamming business
Pink Drainer got a taste of its own medicine recently when it lost 10 ETH to scammers who poisoned its addresses. According to an analysis by MistTrack, the funds were siphoned late last month after Pink Drainer failed to differentiate between their own address and that of the scammer. The theft comes roughly two months after the scamming group announced that it was shutting down, an indication that it’s not leaving the space anytime soon.
Scammers Use Bots to Track New Transactions
In an X post, MistTrack noted that the scammer sent small crypto amounts to the wallet-draining service. The trick was to send the amounts using an address that closely resembles that of Pink Drainer. In doing so, they wanted Pink Drainer to mistakenly copy the scammers’ addresses when sending funds.
Scamming the scammer 🤣
It seems like an address associated with the Pink Drainer fell victim to the address poisoning scam.
Pink Drainer: 0x8980ab6d185af9bcc10292d4e91ae4c0b4f14213
Real: 0xEfF0E5244d5C78Ba4DD6bc01082576280558f58A
Fake:… pic.twitter.com/1CCWTufeZv— MistTrack🕵️ (@MistTrack_io) July 7, 2024
MistTrack noted that scammers use bots to track new transactions before producing an address that’s almost similar to that of their target. With the first and last few characters of the two addresses matching, it decreases the chances of the victim differentiating between their address and that of the scammer.
Over 21,000 Victims Lose $85 Million
The incident has an interesting twist because Pink Drainer specializes in scamming people in the web3 space. According to data from Dune Analytics, Pink Drainer has stolen over $85 million from more than 21,000 victims since July last year.
The scam comes less than a week after a Blur user lost 49 NFTs to scammers. The scammers managed to beat Blur’s system which prevents scammers from listing collectibles for sale at negligible prices. It also comes a few days after MetaMask tapped Wallet Guard to address rising web3 threats like address poisoning.
With Pink Drainer being scammed, it’s likely that other wallet drainers that had announced shutdown like Inferno Drainer are still active.
