Token names you cannot trust
Why a token's name and symbol prove nothing, how Forensia flags misleading ones, and how NFTs are identified instead.
#Plain languageIn plain terms
Anyone can create a token and call it USDC. The name and symbol are just text the creator typed in. Scammers send worthless tokens with famous names to make a wallet look funded or to bait a click.
The only thing that identifies a token is the address of its contract on a given network. Forensia flags labels that could mislead and shows hidden characters in plain view. It does not decide for you which token is the real one.
#How it worksHow it works
- Take the token names and symbols that came with evidence of where they were read from.
- Check each for invisible or control characters.
- Reduce each symbol to a simplified form and compare it with a short list of well-known symbols.
- Check whether the same label appears on more than one contract in the result.
- List anything flagged, with the full contract address beside it.
#Technical detailThe exact rules
The well-known symbols are ETH, WETH, USDC, USDT, DAI, WBTC, BNB, AVAX, POL, MATIC, SOL and BTC, plus the network's own currency.
Simplifying a symbol for comparison
- Decompose accented characters and remove the accents.
- Remove invisible characters.
- Convert to upper case.
- Replace certain Greek and Cyrillic letters, and one Lisu letter, with the Latin letters they resemble.
- Replace look-alike digits and punctuation:
0becomes O,1,|and!become I,5becomes S,3becomes E.
| Reason given | Triggered when |
|---|---|
| Contains invisible or control characters | The label holds characters that do not display. |
| Shares a commonly used symbol | The label is exactly a well-known symbol. |
| Resembles a well-known symbol | The label becomes one only after simplification. |
| Same label on multiple contracts | Two or more contracts in the result use it. |
The finding is finding:token-symbol-impersonation, class limitation, titled "Token labels do not establish asset identity". Characters outside plain printable ASCII are shown as escaped code points, so nothing stays hidden. The original label is never altered in the stored record. Labels longer than 80 characters are not reviewed. The finding describes at most 8 flagged labels and states how many there were in all.
NFT identity
An NFT is identified by three things together: the network, the contract address, and the token ID. Forensia writes it in that form and attaches a quantity. Token IDs are handled as exact 256-bit integers. A single ERC-721 item always has quantity one. If any part is missing or sources conflict, the identity is reported as unresolved. It is not guessed from display text.
#LimitsWhat it does not tell you
- The genuine token also "shares a commonly used symbol". The flag tells you to check the contract address, not that the token is fake.
- Legitimate assets use non-Latin scripts. Non-Latin text is never flagged by itself.
- A missing warning is not a safety check.
- Names can change over time. The label shown is what was reported at lookup time.
- Balances and transfers are never merged because two tokens share a label.