Apple Sued Over Bitcoin Scam App Which Cost Customer $600k

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A Bitcoin investor eager to check his balance trusted Apple’s app store’s rating system enough to download an application which robbed him out of $600,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

Apple tried to keep the story out of the press, but it ended up in court and The Washington Post.

Boris Johnson tricks

Silicon Valley’s PR department has been looking at Boris Johnson on how to avoid bad press as of late. The British prime minister is a master in creating a press buzz for something he said or did whenever there is a major scandal about him set to break.

Last week one tabloid newspaper exclusively had an interview with his so-called mistress and Johnson quickly stated that it was time for people to return to the office as they’ve had enough holidays by working from home for a year. Scandal avoided and he made the headlines for something else which he then could easily control of course.

Apple for example should have faced backlash for daring to rob the Irish out of $13 billion in taxpayer money when they won their antitrust case against the European commission. Instead of awaiting the press to say anything negative about them, Apple promised a newer version of the iPhone. Scandal avoided.

Malicious software

This time round, Apple had been working since February apparently to keep the following story out of the press. A Bitcoin enthusiast known as Phillipe Christodou wanted to check his balance and looked for an app in the Apple store which would allow him to access the hardware wallet he stored his crypto. He entered a search for Trezor and found multiple five-star ratings.

I’ve always thought that the apps bought in the Apple App Store were considered safe! This is alarming.https://t.co/zzqa631Vy6

— L I N D S E Y (@LTLOLindsey) March 31, 2021

Problem was that Trezor doesn’t have an app, and the man downloaded a malicious piece of software which robbed him out of his 17.1 Bitcoins, some $600,000 at the time of the event, more than a $1 million right now.

Mr Christodou is upset and has decided to sue Apple for allowing the app onto their site. He said:

They betrayed the trust that I had in them. Apple doesn’t deserve to get away with this.

Apparently, the fake Trezor app was available on the App store from January 22 to February 3, and was downloaded approximately 1,000 times.

To avoid losing your crypto yourself, never enter your recovery seed into an app. That’s the number one rule when it comes to hardware wallets.

Apple has responded to the story in the Washington Post, saying:

User trust is at the foundation of why we created the App Store, and we have only deepened that commitment in the years since. Study after study has shown that the App Store is the most secure app marketplace in the world, and we are constantly at work to maintain that standard and to further strengthen the App Store’s protections. In the limited instances when criminals defraud our users, we take swift action against these actors as well as to prevent similar violations in the future.

Mr Cristodou was not impressed.