A zero-transfer attack occurs when a phisher creates a blockchain address very similar to that of a target victim’s wallet, and sends zero-value token transactions to the victim’s addresses from the phishing wallet in hopes that the victim will later mistake the phishing address for the real one and send funds to it. It sounds unlikely to work, but users often fail to verify every character of the destination address they’re using, opting instead to copy it from their transaction histories, and this can profit scammers substantially.
Someone intending to transfer Tether stablecoins amounting to $20 million apparently didn’t think it was important to double-check the address, and fell for such an attack.
However, only 51 minutes after the theft, the victim had managed to get Tether to add the thief’s address to its blacklist, freezing the assets and thwarting the attack. The rapidity of the freeze led various people to question who the victim might be who could get Tether to intervene so quickly.
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“Tether Freezes $20 Million Linked To Phishing Scammer”
, CryptoPotato
