Scammers Scammed: Pink Drainer Loses 10 ETH in Address Poisoning Scheme

Notorious crypto-draining group Pink Drainer fell victim to an "address poisoning" scam, losing 10 Ether (approximately $30,000). The attack, reported by MistTrack, deceived the group into transferring funds to a fake wallet address resembling their own.

Pink Drainer Falls Victim to $30,000 Address Poisoning Scam, MistTrack Reports

Pink Drainer, a notorious organization that drains individuals' wallets, appears to have been the victim of an "address poisoning" scheme.

MistTrack, a crypto compliance platform, alerted X to the attack in a post on July 7. In late June, the hacking group lost 10 Ether to the scam, equivalent to approximately $30,000 at current prices, to a false wallet address.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, MistTrack stated that an address poisoning scam is a phenomenon in which an attacker sends small amounts of cryptocurrency from a wallet with a similar-looking address to one of the target's regular wallets to deceive the target into inadvertently sending funds to the incorrect wallet.

"Scammers have bots that look for new transactions. Since they can’t crack the code on the whole address, it’s possible to make the first and last few characters look similar to the address being used,” MistTrack said.

“So the scammer is banking on the victim to [copy the] scam address instead of the victim’s original address,” they added.

Pink Drainer Loses 10 ETH to Scam After Announcing Service Discontinuation; Other Toolkits Still Active

In this instance, the attackers sent funds from a wallet address with an almost identical identifier to Pink Drainer's previous wallet. This successfully led Pink Drainer to transfer 10 ETH to the fake address accidentally.

Pink Drainer's unexpected announcement on May 17 that it would be discontinuing its services after achieving its stated objective of assisting in the theft of more than $85 million in crypto assets occurred just one month prior.

Pink Drainer seized $85.3 million in cryptocurrency starting in July 2023, as indicated by Dune Analytics data.

Although Pink Drainer may have suspended its operations, there are numerous other drainer toolkit services, such as Angel Drainer, Pussy Drainer, and Venom Drainer, that assist malicious actors in the theft of crypto assets.

Photo: Microsoft Bing