You may notice unfamiliar transfer history in your activity, such as "Sent 0.1 ETH to 0x...," that you don't recall making. However, checking your wallet shows no actual change in your balance.
This is a type of "event spoofing" that exploits the Transfer event emitted by smart contracts, and it doesn't necessarily mean any assets were actually sent.
Note that this is purely a "cosmetic" spoof, and is different from a case where your assets were actually moved due to a misused permission (Approval). If you remember connecting to a DApp and your assets have actually decreased, please also see Things to Watch for When Connecting Your Wallet to DApps.
How It Works
On blockchains like Ethereum, smart contracts can record what they do as events.
Some malicious contracts exploit this by recording a Transfer event that makes it look like a transaction occurred, even though no tokens actually moved. Depending on your wallet or block explorer, this event may still show up in your transfer history.
Purpose and Tactics
The main goal behind this is address poisoning.
Attackers make their own address appear in your history as if it were a past transaction partner. If you later copy an address from your history to send funds, you risk accidentally sending them to the attacker's address instead.
Attackers will often generate an address whose beginning or ending characters closely resemble a legitimate address you've used before, making it easy to mistake for the real one.
How to Respond
Avoid copying a recipient address from your history. Instead, use a trusted address book or official sources to get the correct address.
Before sending, double-check not just the beginning of the address but the ending as well.
Even if unfamiliar transfer history appears, your assets are not necessarily lost — as long as your wallet balance and actual transaction history remain unchanged.
Related articles: Unrecognized Tokens or NFTs Received / I Sent Funds to the Wrong Address