Cryptocurrency investment is a volatile arena that often prompts asset exits, but fear not — with Blockscout, assistance is at hand!

The cryptocurrency industry now boasts hundreds of millions of users, with millions engaging daily in decentralized products. This presents an exciting opportunity to democratize access to high-quality financial products and asset ownership worldwide. However, bad actors have deployed multiple scams called “phishing attacks”, which ensnare many unsuspecting users.

Fortunately, tools like the Blockscout browser are designed to mitigate these risks. This article explores how the Blockscout Explorers aids in identifying and preventing phishing attacks and safeguarding users from malicious activities.

Crypto serves as a financial tool aimed at empowering individuals, yet sadly, many users have unwittingly fallen into traps set by malicious entities, resulting in significant asset losses. Fraud within the crypto sphere is diverse and sophisticated, exploiting the psychology and behaviors of users.

One prominent form of fraud is phishing attacks. These schemes deceive users by presenting fake smart contracts that impersonate commonly used legitimate ones. According to ScamSniffer, in just the first half of 2024, stolen assets totaled $314 million, surpassing the entire amount stolen in 2023, which was $295 million.

This unfortunate incident affected a staggering number of victims, totaling 260,000 individuals. Among them, 20 people lost assets exceeding $1 million each, totaling $58 million in losses. This stark reality highlights that even those with substantial holdings can fall victim to crypto fraud. To safeguard yourself from phishing attacks, it’s crucial to stay vigilant and utilize tools like Blockscout explorers to protect your assets and ensure your safety.

Blockscout Explorer is one of the premier blockchain explorers in today’s cryptocurrency industry. It not only fulfills the essential requirements of an explorer but also offers advanced features like onchain domain lookup and an application marketplace. Presently, Blockscout is the explorer for over 1000 large and small blockchain projects. Key advantages of Blockscout include its professional and experienced team, its status as an open-source explorer allowing community scrutiny and contributions, and its continuous updates with new features, etc. Security is unquestionably one of Blockscout's standout advantages.

1. Phishing Attacks on Wallet Addresses

This type of phishing attack involves scammers interacting with a victim’s wallet address using wallet addresses that have the same first and last characters as the addresses the victim usually interacts with. Here is an example of a transaction where a victim was deceived into losing $35,000 using this tactic: Transaction Link.

Scammers spam fraudulent transactions using impersonated addresses, making victims mistakenly think these are legitimate and copy them.

Correct address: 0xDa82E31c57cffff95e85f407fEDacA170cbAe058Phishing address: 0xDa8247890208691DE8197A7C2dCd69a891e7e058

When not examined closely, it’s easy to confuse them because the first and last characters appear similar.

The simple solution to this problem is to carefully verify every wallet address before sending any funds. Always confirm the address with the recipient before proceeding. To ensure accuracy, start by sending a few small transactions and only send larger amounts once you have confirmed that the smaller transactions have reached the correct address. Additionally, you can use Blockscout to help prevent such incidents.

If you need to copy wallet addresses from the Blockscout explorers, hover over the abbreviated addresses to see the full address. Check each character carefully before copying and sending funds. This extra step can help you avoid falling victim to phishing attacks.

Additionally, when you mouse over a wallet address on Blockscout, transactions involving that address are highlighted in green. As shown in the image below, although two addresses may have the same ending, hovering over them will highlight only the transactions associated with the hovered address. This visual cue helps you distinguish between different addresses, proving that any non-highlighted line belongs to a different address.

Another valuable feature is the “private label”. To access this, create an account or log in to Blockscout using the login button in the upper right corner.

Then, navigate to the “Private tags” section.

Enter the wallet address along with the label you want to label.

Once completed, a label will appear when you view that wallet address. Only send funds to wallet addresses that you have labeled yourself!

The third feature that helps you avoid sending money to the wrong address is to carefully review the SocialFi accounts and the domain names associated with those addresses (if any). This feature is less useful for addresses that do not possess DIDs or exchange deposit addresses.

2.Phishing Attacks on Contracts

A common phishing scam involves contract forgery, where scammers send tokens with names similar to legitimate ones to your wallet. Using the wallet address above as an example, let’s examine it on Blockscout. This wallet shows 10,000 tokens with the symbol USDT, but are they real USDT tokens? They were sent by a wallet address with the same first and last characters as the real address that has previously interacted with this victim’s address.

To clarify, click on the USDT token, and you will see the image below.

Now, check the contract for the real $USDT token, and you’ll see a badge indicating that this token has been verified.

Additionally, if the contract is secure, you’ll see a “Verified Contract” symbol indicating that the token’s contract has been vetted by security services.

3. Phishing Attacks on Domains

One of the most frustrating scams involves fake dApp websites, often seen on social networks like X (Twitter). Scammers lure users to these fraudulent sites, asking them to enter their private key or seed phrase or approve unlimited spending for valuable tokens in their wallet.

Blockscout can address this issue with a feature called Dappscout, a decentralized application marketplace integrated directly into their explorers. With Dappscout, you can browse popular decentralized applications without leaving the Blockscout explorer. This feature protects you from the hassle of searching for application links and potentially encountering malicious websites.

To access Dappscout, go to the explorers that support it and click the DApps button in the right menu.

The Dappscout interface is user-friendly and mirrors the experience of using applications through official links.

Some applications may not be immediately available on Dappscout and will need to be accessed outside the platform. However, you can rest assured that the links featured on Blockscout have been thoroughly tested by the Blockscout team and other projects before being integrated.

In the volatile world of cryptocurrency, it’s crucial to be well-informed and utilize tools to safeguard your assets. Blockscout has proven to be highly effective in helping users detect and avoid phishing attacks and other types of fraud. With its standout features — such as wallet address checking, private labeling, contract verification, and the innovative Dappscout marketplace.

Stay vigilant and make the most of powerful tools like Blockscout to protect your assets. Don’t give scammers a chance to target you. Together, we can create a more secure and trustworthy crypto community. Wishing you success and safety on your journey through the crypto world!

Cryptocurrency investment is a volatile arena that often prompts asset exits, but fear not — with Blockscout, assistance is at hand!

The cryptocurrency industry now boasts hundreds of millions of users, with millions engaging daily in decentralized products. This presents an exciting opportunity to democratize access to high-quality financial products and asset ownership worldwide. However, bad actors have deployed multiple scams called “phishing attacks”, which ensnare many unsuspecting users.

Fortunately, tools like the Blockscout browser are designed to mitigate these risks. This article explores how the Blockscout Explorers aids in identifying and preventing phishing attacks and safeguarding users from malicious activities.

Crypto serves as a financial tool aimed at empowering individuals, yet sadly, many users have unwittingly fallen into traps set by malicious entities, resulting in significant asset losses. Fraud within the crypto sphere is diverse and sophisticated, exploiting the psychology and behaviors of users.

One prominent form of fraud is phishing attacks. These schemes deceive users by presenting fake smart contracts that impersonate commonly used legitimate ones. According to ScamSniffer, in just the first half of 2024, stolen assets totaled $314 million, surpassing the entire amount stolen in 2023, which was $295 million.

This unfortunate incident affected a staggering number of victims, totaling 260,000 individuals. Among them, 20 people lost assets exceeding $1 million each, totaling $58 million in losses. This stark reality highlights that even those with substantial holdings can fall victim to crypto fraud. To safeguard yourself from phishing attacks, it’s crucial to stay vigilant and utilize tools like Blockscout explorers to protect your assets and ensure your safety.

Blockscout Explorer is one of the premier blockchain explorers in today’s cryptocurrency industry. It not only fulfills the essential requirements of an explorer but also offers advanced features like onchain domain lookup and an application marketplace. Presently, Blockscout is the explorer for over 1000 large and small blockchain projects. Key advantages of Blockscout include its professional and experienced team, its status as an open-source explorer allowing community scrutiny and contributions, and its continuous updates with new features, etc. Security is unquestionably one of Blockscout's standout advantages.

1. Phishing Attacks on Wallet Addresses

This type of phishing attack involves scammers interacting with a victim’s wallet address using wallet addresses that have the same first and last characters as the addresses the victim usually interacts with. Here is an example of a transaction where a victim was deceived into losing $35,000 using this tactic: Transaction Link.

Scammers spam fraudulent transactions using impersonated addresses, making victims mistakenly think these are legitimate and copy them.

Correct address: 0xDa82E31c57cffff95e85f407fEDacA170cbAe058Phishing address: 0xDa8247890208691DE8197A7C2dCd69a891e7e058

When not examined closely, it’s easy to confuse them because the first and last characters appear similar.

The simple solution to this problem is to carefully verify every wallet address before sending any funds. Always confirm the address with the recipient before proceeding. To ensure accuracy, start by sending a few small transactions and only send larger amounts once you have confirmed that the smaller transactions have reached the correct address. Additionally, you can use Blockscout to help prevent such incidents.

If you need to copy wallet addresses from the Blockscout explorers, hover over the abbreviated addresses to see the full address. Check each character carefully before copying and sending funds. This extra step can help you avoid falling victim to phishing attacks.

Additionally, when you mouse over a wallet address on Blockscout, transactions involving that address are highlighted in green. As shown in the image below, although two addresses may have the same ending, hovering over them will highlight only the transactions associated with the hovered address. This visual cue helps you distinguish between different addresses, proving that any non-highlighted line belongs to a different address.

Another valuable feature is the “private label”. To access this, create an account or log in to Blockscout using the login button in the upper right corner.

Then, navigate to the “Private tags” section.

Enter the wallet address along with the label you want to label.

Once completed, a label will appear when you view that wallet address. Only send funds to wallet addresses that you have labeled yourself!

The third feature that helps you avoid sending money to the wrong address is to carefully review the SocialFi accounts and the domain names associated with those addresses (if any). This feature is less useful for addresses that do not possess DIDs or exchange deposit addresses.

2.Phishing Attacks on Contracts

A common phishing scam involves contract forgery, where scammers send tokens with names similar to legitimate ones to your wallet. Using the wallet address above as an example, let’s examine it on Blockscout. This wallet shows 10,000 tokens with the symbol USDT, but are they real USDT tokens? They were sent by a wallet address with the same first and last characters as the real address that has previously interacted with this victim’s address.

To clarify, click on the USDT token, and you will see the image below.

Now, check the contract for the real $USDT token, and you’ll see a badge indicating that this token has been verified.

Additionally, if the contract is secure, you’ll see a “Verified Contract” symbol indicating that the token’s contract has been vetted by security services.

3. Phishing Attacks on Domains

One of the most frustrating scams involves fake dApp websites, often seen on social networks like X (Twitter). Scammers lure users to these fraudulent sites, asking them to enter their private key or seed phrase or approve unlimited spending for valuable tokens in their wallet.

Blockscout can address this issue with a feature called Dappscout, a decentralized application marketplace integrated directly into their explorers. With Dappscout, you can browse popular decentralized applications without leaving the Blockscout explorer. This feature protects you from the hassle of searching for application links and potentially encountering malicious websites.

To access Dappscout, go to the explorers that support it and click the DApps button in the right menu.

The Dappscout interface is user-friendly and mirrors the experience of using applications through official links.

Some applications may not be immediately available on Dappscout and will need to be accessed outside the platform. However, you can rest assured that the links featured on Blockscout have been thoroughly tested by the Blockscout team and other projects before being integrated.

In the volatile world of cryptocurrency, it’s crucial to be well-informed and utilize tools to safeguard your assets. Blockscout has proven to be highly effective in helping users detect and avoid phishing attacks and other types of fraud. With its standout features — such as wallet address checking, private labeling, contract verification, and the innovative Dappscout marketplace.

Stay vigilant and make the most of powerful tools like Blockscout to protect your assets. Don’t give scammers a chance to target you. Together, we can create a more secure and trustworthy crypto community. Wishing you success and safety on your journey through the crypto world!