Man Loses Life Savings to Phony Bitcoin iOS App – Over a Million Dollars in BTC Stolen
Individual Loses His Life Savings - 17 Bitcoins Gone
Malicious and phony applications for smartphones can be a problem for crypto users and not too long ago, Phillipe Christodoulou, lost over 17 BTC. At the time of the theft his stash was worth over $600k, and today it would be well over a million dollars. On that particular occasion, Christodoulou wanted to check his balance, so he headed over to Apple’s App Store and downloaded the fake Trezor application for iOS. However, Trezor doesn’t offer such an application and in fact, the company had been warning about the problem for some time now.
On December 2, 2020, the hardware wallet manufacturer tweeted about a similar scam application on Google’s Play Store. “A warning to all the Android users owning Trezor devices,” the company warned at the time. “This app is a scam and has no relation to SatoshiLabs and Trezor. We’ve already reported it to the Google team. Always confirm any action on your device and never type seed words until your Trezor asks you to.”
Coalition for App Fairness Executive Says ‘Apple Pushes Myths About User Privacy and Security’
The application Christodoulou downloaded was not only a phony decoy, but the malicious hackers also stole his funds. Christodoulou says he’s more heated at Apple and he was once a loyal Apple customer. “They betrayed the trust that I had in them,” Christodoulou detailed to the press. “Apple doesn’t deserve to get away with this.” Apple is supposed to do due diligence and applications downloaded from the App Store are touted as safe.
“Study after study has shown that the App Store is the most secure app marketplace in the world,” Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz stressed. However, according to a report from the Washington Post, Meghan DiMuzio, executive director of the Coalition for App Fairness disagrees.
“Apple frequently pushes myths about user privacy and security as a shield against its anti-competitive App Store practices,” DiMuzio explained. “The truth is, Apple’s security ‘standards’ are inconsistently applied across apps and only enforced when it benefits Apple.”
Source: Fintechs.fi
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