How Scammers Create Near-Identical Crypto Addresses

[cryptoenthusiast]

Crypto wallet addresses are long hexadecimal strings, especially on networks like Ethereum. Most wallets shorten them for display, showing only the first and last few characters. Attackers exploit this by generating “vanity” addresses that match the beginning and end of legitimate ones, while subtly altering characters in the middle.

Because blockchains are permissionless, anyone can send tokens to any address — and wallets typically display all incoming transfers, including spam. Attackers rely on this openness to plant their fake address into a victim’s transaction history. The victim’s private key remains secure, and the blockchain works exactly as designed. The weakness lies in human habits: quick visual checks, routine copying, and trusting truncated address displays.

[etfs]

they probably have to generate millions of them to do that