Don’t Fall for This Tron Fake Transfer Trick

Today I came across a type of fraudulent transaction on the Tron network that I hadn’t seen before. I want to share it with you, because if you’re not aware of it, you could easily fall for it.

Take a look at this list of transactions: https://tronscan.org/#/address/TYQtKyZUQhWEtrxqQccvuhCdWteX6R15nb/approval

Open any of them and you’ll see:

• an amount in USDT
• the sender and recipient addresses
• confirmation that the transaction was approved on the network a long time ago

If I were using a cold wallet and checking transactions only through a block explorer, seeing such a transaction with my address as the recipient could easily make me think I had just received 500,000 USDT on Tron.

But that’s not the case. This transaction doesn’t actually transfer tokens. It simply gives the recipient permission to withdraw up to 500,000 USDT from the sender’s account. The permission exists, but there are no actual tokens at that address - nothing to withdraw.

Yes, if USDT ever does appear in the sender’s wallet, the recipient could take it. They already have the necessary approval. But will that ever happen? Highly unlikely, considering how many recipients this sender has granted the same permission to.

At rabbit.io, we verify actual wallet balances, not just what appears in a block explorer. But if you don’t have a wallet handy to check your balance and rely entirely on Tronscan, here’s one easy way to spot this scam: look for the “Cancel approval” button. If a real token transfer had taken place, there would be nothing to cancel.

Don’t let this trick you!