Checking a vendor wallet address before you pay

Before sending crypto to any vendor address, there are a few checks worth doing. These take two minutes and have saved me from at least one likely scam.

Transaction history check

Paste the vendor's Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet address into a blockchain explorer — blockchain.com for Bitcoin, etherscan.io for Ethereum. Look at the transaction history. A legitimate vendor wallet that has been operating for months or years will have dozens or hundreds of transactions. A newly created wallet with no transaction history is either a fresh legitimate setup or a scam address.

High transaction count does not guarantee legitimacy, but zero transaction history on an address you found on an obscure forum is a significant warning sign.

Amount pattern

On the blockchain explorer, look at the incoming transaction amounts. Legitimate vendor wallets receive payments in amounts consistent with ID order values — typically $50 to $200 equivalent in BTC. A wallet that only receives very large or very small amounts, or that shows a pattern inconsistent with retail transactions, may not be what you expect.

Age of the address

The date of the first transaction on the address tells you when it was created. A vendor address with its first transaction from two years ago is more plausible as a real business than one created a week before you found it.

For Monero

Monero transactions are not publicly visible on the blockchain by design. You cannot verify Monero wallet history externally. The reputation check for Monero-accepting vendors has to rely on community reviews and the vendor's established presence on known platforms rather than on-chain verification.

The safest approach: use vendor addresses that have been publicly listed and verified in active review communities, not addresses you found only on a single unverified source.

Blockchain analytics services are primarily used by exchanges, law enforcement, and financial institutions — not by individuals checking a specific payment destination. For most purchase situations, confirming the wallet address against the vendor's official channel is the only verification that matters. If the address on the invoice matches the address posted in the vendor's confirmed forum profile or verified website, you have done the appropriate check.