Crypto Scammer Gets Away with $1.2M in ARB Tokens Through 'Address Poisoning' Attack – Here's What Happened

cryptonews.com:

A hacker has made off with $1.2 million worth of ARB tokens through a relatively new type of cyber-attack that uses modified wallet addresses to steal funds.

Blockchain data shows that one crypto address has been stealing funds from Arbitrum users. So far, the attacker has scammed out over 600 different crypto wallets for more than 930,000 ARB tokens, worth over $1.2 million at current rates. 

The transfer of funds started on March 24, a day after Arbitrum, a popular Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, carried out its highly-anticipated airdrop. ARB is the native governance token behind the L2 network.

The transfers took place using a contract whose creator is tagged as “Fake_Phishing18” on Arbitrum’s blockchain explorer. This suggests that users who have lost their tokens should have interacted with the malicious contract by clicking a phishing link.

A number of crypto users have revealed on Twitter that they have fallen victim to the attack. "Lost 7250 arb token to the hacker. Which is currently worth 10,000$ at time of tweet," one user said. 

Ethereum smart contract developer Brainsy has also previously warned about a malicious contract created by “Fake_Phishing18.” On March 24, they said that interacting with the contract creates an additional transaction request that appears as if it’s from the sender's wallet but instead is a phishing attack.

"When I make a send the fake contract also makes a "transaction" that appears like its from my wallet. I assume to get me to interact with the contract," they said at the time. 

This type of hack, which has gained popularity among hackers more recently, is referred to “address poisoning” and basically capitalizes on user carelessness and haste.

During this type of hack, an attacker