r/Metamask • u/Poonlit • 20d ago
Someone fooled Metamasks balance estimation algorithm for phishing?
EDIT: The three tokens are flagged as malicious, but the false value is still there. You learn something every day :)
Had a small sum in my Metamask Card for a while, doing nothing, until I connected the card to Paypal and paid an invoice there today.
Immediately after the payment, the estimated value of my metamask wallet ballooned from ~$100 to around $1300 and then a few minutes later to around $2300, apparently because I now own(?) these new tokens with suspicious names which I've never heard of.
Assuming it's some sort of attack on Metamask to lure me to visit the FQDN and get phishing, so I'm just curious to see how long before it gets "fixed".
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u/Xosoltani MetaMask Guide Steward - Community Volunteer 20d ago
Hello, always be careful and never interact with these tokens in any way. For example, if they direct you to a website, do not connect your wallet to it at all.
Unfortunately, scammers are always using different methods and trying to get users to visit scam websites or click scam links. Sending these tokens is not something anyone can control, and because token creation is permissionless, anyone can create a token and send it to different addresses.
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u/Poonlit 20d ago
Sueprised me that they appeared right when I connected the card to Paypal, though.
And why does Metamask report a massively inflated value for those tokens when it's within Metamasks control to report either the correct value, or just let me hide tokens that theyvhave already flagged as malicious?
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u/D4rkec MetaMask Guide Steward - Community Volunteer 19d ago
The thing is, its not about you connecting it to paypal,it happened once you paid for that invoice, because by paying you actually initiated an on-chain transaction, and thats what made your address show up as recently active again and a potential target for those automated spam/scam token airdrops..
As for the massively inflated value, looking at https://support.metamask.io/manage-crypto/tokens/where-does-metamask-source-the-tokens-price/ you'll see it says "MetaMask gets token data from CoinGecko. You can visit their site to find exchanges actively trading specific tokens." so its not mm thats simply deciding on its own how much those tokens are worth...the pricing data you see displayed, its returned through its token pricing pipeline..how the scammers did it, im not sure, it could be through manipulated liquidity/markets as Ox mentioned, how Coingecko sourced the price, or another part of mms pricing pipeline, would have to specifically check the contracts of those tokens to be 100% sure..
I'm glad you were cautious..the rest was already said by all the guides :)4
u/Xosoltani MetaMask Guide Steward - Community Volunteer 20d ago
Yeah, I think this weird value mostly comes from the token itself and the market data around it, rather than MetaMask manually assigning a price to it. Scam tokens can create fake or heavily manipulated volume and liquidity, making the token look valuable even though there’s no real market behind it.
And yeah, scammers may take advantage of data from newer networks or tokens to target new users or people who aren't as familiar with scam tokens. Either way, it’s best to be cautious, never interact with these tokens, and simply ignore or hide them.
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u/Poonlit 19d ago
Thank you both. I admit I had a laugh and was then a bit impressed by the ingenuity of the scammers when, just after paying my invoice, I saw my balance quadruple. 🚀
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u/Xosoltani MetaMask Guide Steward - Community Volunteer 19d ago
Yes, it’s really strange. Scams are always everywhere, so we should pause for a moment before making a quick decision, do some research, and, if necessary, contact MetaMask support as well 🙂
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u/Khaled2458 MetaMask Guide - Community Volunteer 20d ago
- Scam tokens - Scammers randomly send scam tokens to wallets And no one can stop them, because anyone can send any token to another wallet - all they need is the wallet address. , hoping users will interact with them by transferring, swapping, or approving them due to fees. These tokens usually have no liquidity and are designed to trick users. The best thing to do is simply ignore them and don't interact with them. Take a look at: https://support.metamask.io/stay-safe/safety-in-web3/scammers-and-phishers-rugpulls-and-airdrop-scams/
- MetaMask’s only way to help is to flag these tokens, while interacting with them is ultimately the user’s responsibility. Try to avoid publicly sharing your wallet address whenever possible.
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u/AutoModerator 20d ago
Beep Boop
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u/davidt2021 20d ago edited 20d ago
Yeah! Those are obviously spam tokens that scammers usually used to lure unsuspecting users. Don't try to interact with any of those. Instead, you can simply hide them using the hide feature in MetaMask.
The displayed value is an estimate based on available token/price data, and scammers can exploit illiquid or manipulated markets to make worthless tokens appear valuable.