# Address poisoning & dust

You send to the same exchange address every month. One day you open your history, copy "the address you used last time", and paste it. It was the attacker's.

## How address poisoning works

1. An attacker watches the blockchain and sees you send to an address.
2. They generate a **lookalike** that shares its first and last few characters. Address grinders like Profanity can do this in minutes.
3. They send you a **tiny or zero-value transfer** from the lookalike, so it appears in your history right next to the real one.
4. Later, you copy from history and pick the wrong line.

Nothing is stolen until **you** send. The whole attack depends on copying from history and checking only the ends.

## What "dust" is

**Dust** is a very small amount of crypto, or an unrequested token, that shows up in your wallet. It's how poisoning transfers arrive, and dust is also used to:

- **Lure you to a scam site.** Token names like "Visit site-name to claim" are advertising a phishing site. Don't visit it, and don't try to sell or "claim" unknown tokens there.
- **Track you.** On Bitcoin, spending dust together with your other coins can link your addresses.

KeepKey Desktop filters these out of your token list: tokens it doesn't recognize from its known-token catalog, and tokens with no value, are tucked behind a **Show filtered tokens** toggle. You can't stop anyone from sending to your address, but you don't have to touch what they send.

## How to avoid it

- **Never copy a recipient from your transaction history.** Copy from the source (the exchange's deposit page, the receiver's own device) or pick from your [Address Book](/docs/desktop/address-book).
- **Save addresses you reuse**, with a clear label, after one careful full-line check. At send time, the label confirms you picked the right entry.
- **Read the whole address on the KeepKey screen**, the middle included, before you approve.
- **Ignore unknown tokens and airdrops.** Leave them where they are.

## Related

- [Clipboard swapping](/docs/guides/clipboard-swapping) — the same lookalike trick, delivered through your clipboard.
- [Staying Safe](/docs/learn/staying-safe)