Skip to main content
Category: Hacks → Wallet Drainers & Malicious Token ApprovalsHacksWallet DrainersYield Farm ScamsReading time: 10 minutes
Risk level: High
Target audience: Yield farmers, DeFi users

​
Meet Adekunle

Adekunle is a 33-year-old DeFi farmer. He searches for high-yield opportunities and comes across what looks like Curve Finance: Domain: curve-finance-dao.io
Offer: “50% APY on stablecoin pools” He connects his wallet and deposits ₦1 million worth of USDC to the pool. He’s asked to approve the deposit (standard for yield farming). The approval is granted to a contract that claims to be Curve’s router. Within minutes, instead of receiving LP tokens, all his USDC is drained to the attacker’s address.

​
Where the Scammer Won

  • Unrealistic APY: 50% APY is far higher than legitimate Curve pools (typically 2-8%).
  • Domain typosquatting: curve-finance-dao.io vs. real curve.fi.
  • Yield farming approval: The approval request seemed normal for DeFi farming.
  • Greed: The high APY promise overrode skepticism.

​
Red Flags Adekunle Missed

  • 50% APY is unrealistically high. Real Curve pools offer 2-8% APY typically.
  • Domain: curve-finance-dao.io vs. real curve.fi.
  • No mention of audit or security. Fake sites avoid discussing security.
  • Contract address wasn’t verified before approval.

​
How Yield Farm Drainers Work

What happens: Scammer creates fake yield farming site with unrealistically high APY promises to attract victims.
What happens: Site asks user to deposit tokens to “farm” rewards, requiring standard approval.
What happens: Approval is granted to drainer contract, not legitimate farming contract.
What happens: Once approved, drainer contract immediately moves all deposited tokens to attacker’s address.

​
Prevention

Verify the contract address on Etherscan.
Check historical APY data on official dashboards (defillama.com).
Assume “too good to be true” offers are scams.
Verify the domain: Official Curve Finance is curve.fi, not variations.
Research the project: Check if the yield farm is listed on DeFi aggregators and has real liquidity.

​
If You Already Deposited and Lost Funds

1

Revoke Approval Immediately

Use Revoke.cash to revoke the farming contract approval.
2

Check for Remaining Funds

Check if any tokens remain in your wallet or the farming contract.
3

Report the Site

Report the fake site to ChainAbuse and alert Curve Finance.
4

Report the Contract

Report the drainer contract address to ChainAbuse.

DEX Drainer Clone

How fake DEX clones drain wallets

Hacks Category

Explore all types of wallet drainers and technical exploits

Check Your Wallet

Verify if addresses are reported as malicious

Report a Scam

Report fraudulent yield farms and addresses

​
References

  1. Curve Finance - Official Website and Pools
  2. DeFiLlama - Historical APY Data
  3. ChainAbuse - Report Scam Addresses