Phillipe Christodoulou, the director of a laundry company in New York, wants to check his Bitcoin account. He went to the Trezor app on the App Store. Application developed by a manufacturer specializing in hardware storage of virtual money. The familiar logo appeared with a nearly 5-star rating, Christodoulou downloaded and entered his information into the app.
In less than a second, the lifetime savings of Christodoulou worth 17.1 Bitcoin, or $ 600,000, were gone. The app he downloaded is fake, designed to make the user think it's genuine software.
However, Christodoulou is more angry with Apple than thieves because it always advertises the App Store as a safe and reliable place, in which every application is censored before appearing on the system. Christodoulou was once a loyal Apple customer, but after this, his opinion has completely changed. "They betrayed my beliefs. Apple didn't deserve to be forgiven," he said.
Apple calls the App Store "the world's most trusted app marketplace", in which every software uploaded is scanned and checked for safety, convenience, and originality. However, experts say that scammers have found loopholes in the regulations of this system. They can send innocuous apps to the App Store for approval, then turn into a scam app to get user information.
Apple claims to always delete the app and ban the developer when it detects this tactic, but by then it is too late for the victims.
Cryptocurrency scams are common on the Android operating system and the Internet in general, but their appearance on the App Store is a surprise because Apple has always tightly controlled the system. Fees of 15 to 30% of App Store revenue are collected by Apple to "ensure a safe user experience," the company said.
The ability to "replace" the application after being approved by Apple raises many questions about the effectiveness of the censorship process on its app store. Apple doesn't disclose how often these apps appear, but announced last year it removed 6,500 "apps" because of "hidden or unnoticed features". The company also regularly uses user safety as an excuse for monopoly accusations of distributing apps on the iPhone.
"Apple often shields users' privacy and security stories to discourage actions from competing with the App Store. The reality is that their standards don't apply to every app and only. is enforced in the interests of Apple, "said Meghan DiMuzio, CEO of the Application Fairness Alliance - an organization created to fight antitrust on the App Store.
Coinfirm, a UK-based fraud investigation and coordination firm, said it has received 7,000 questions about the theft of cryptocurrencies, since October 2019. "Fake apps are very common on the Play Store and App Store", Coinfirm chief information officer - Pawel Aleksander - said.
Five people have informed Coinfirm about the fake Trezor app on iOS with a total damage of about $ 1.6 million, and about $ 600,000 on the Android operating system.
Apple did not reveal the identity of the fake app development team, nor whether it would pass them on to officials or investigate by themselves.
Via Washington Post