Uniswap Founder Warns Community About ENS Wallet Impersonation Scam in Web 3.0

Uniswap Founder Warns Crypto Community about Scammers Using ENS Wallet Addresses

Hayden Adams, the creator of decentralized exchange Uniswap, has issued a caution to the crypto community regarding a new scam involving wallet addresses and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains.

In a post on X, Adams revealed that scammers have been imitating his Ethereum wallet address by registering it as an ENS wallet with the .eth extension. Additionally, he noted that some user interfaces may display a fake ENS match as the top result when his wallet address is pasted, potentially leading to accidental transfers to the wrong address.

This deceptive tactic is designed to confuse senders and potentially result in losses for victims. Adams urged user interfaces to filter out these fake addresses to prevent any harm from this attack method.

While this may seem like a new scam, Taylor Monahan, founder of Ethereum wallet manager MyCrypto, shared that a similar tactic was used in the early days of the MyEtherWallet service. Monahan also mentioned that this tactic caused issues with registrations and resolutions for names starting with “0x” at the time.

The Dangers of Autocompleting Names in Web 3.0 Interfaces

According to ENS founder and lead developer Nick Johnson, autocomplete features for names should not be included in Web 3.0 interfaces. This poses a significant risk for users, and ENS strongly advises against it in their user experience guidelines.

In January, reports surfaced of crypto investors receiving emails from scammers posing as major Web3 companies. These emails promoted fake airdrops and claimed to be from reputable firms like Cointelegraph, WalletConnect, and Token Terminal. However, it was later discovered that the phishing attack was a result of a security breach at email marketing firm MailerLite. The firm confirmed that hackers used social engineering tactics to gain control of Web3 accounts. According to research by analytics platform Nansen, the scammer’s phishing wallet received approximately $3.3 million in funds since the campaign began.