Bitcoin Scam App on Apple App Store, Costs $600,000 to iPhone User: Epic CEO Calls Store 'Full of Scams'

On Tuesday, March 30, Apple recently accepted a scam app into the App Store capable of stealing Bitcoin from users. Unfortunately, it robbed someone out of $600,000, and Epic's CEO expressed his displeasure in a tweet.

Treznor scam app on the Apple App Store

According to AppleInsider, Cryptocurrency owner Philippe Christodoulou downloaded a cryptocurrency app on his iPhone from the Apple App Store. In February, he discovered that the app was a fake scheming software.

With the mistake, Christodoulou reportedly lost 17.1 bitcoin, worth roughly $600,000 at the time. The app called as Trezor was fake and turned over the cryptocurrency to scammers.

Surprisingly, his Trezor wallet showed that no funds were stored in the wallet at all.

Why did he download it at the first place?

According to Christodoulou, based on its reviews, the app had close to five stars, which helped him trust it enough to download it.

The application was listed in the App Store under Treznor's brand name, even though Trezor does not produce applications for its hardware wallets. If thieves produced the application and hosted it on the App Store, they could steal the funds.

Because of the recent events, he is no longer content with the company, which he pointed out that does not review apps before they appear in the store.

He said that Apple has betrayed his trust adding, "Apple is not justified in getting away with this."

The CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeny, a known rival of Apple, also expressed frustration over Twitter, claiming that the App Store cannot protect its users.

Tim Sweeny views Apple as a monopoly over the apps that can be downloaded onto Apple hardware. He has been opposing the company for some time now after it removed Fortnite from the app store.

Other people have also tweeted in agreeance with the CEO.

How did Trezor app gets into the App Store?

According to a MacRumors report, Apple reviews all submissions to prevent scam apps, but there are still plenty of copycat apps such as the fake Trezor app that slip through and cause problems for iPhone users.

The fake Trezor was crafted with the companies logo and color scheme, but it was deemed a "cryptography" app, which encrypted iPhone content and stored passwords. The developer of the scam app told Apple that the company wasn't involved in any cryptocurrency.

Following the fake app's submission, the app changed itself into a cryptocurrency wallet, undetectable by Apple.

Apple confirmed that it had removed other cryptocurrency scams from the App Store but did not provide specific details on how many or whether counterfeit Trezor apps had existed in the past. Trezor, the actual company, also pointed out that it had been notifying Apple and Google for years about fake Trezor apps.

Also, Information from Sensor Tower suggests that the fake Trezor app was on the App Store from January 22 to February 3 and was downloaded nearly 1,000 times. Christodoulou lost 17,1 bitcoin valued at more than $1 million, and the company says nothing has been heard from them.

Meghan DiMuzio, the Executive Director for Coalition of App Fairness, a group of companies that works with anti-Apple companies, including Epic Games, said that Apple promotes the myths about user privacy and security to withstand competition with anti-Apple practices.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Lionell Moore