Three individuals have filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that they lost nearly $1.8 million in cryptocurrency after downloading a fraudulent Bitcoin wallet from the App Store. The complaint argues that Apple’s claims about the security of its app marketplace gave users confidence that the application was legitimate.
According to court filings, the plaintiffs were searching for Sparrow Wallet, a well-known Bitcoin wallet, through Apple’s App Store. Instead of finding the genuine application, they downloaded an app allegedly designed to impersonate it.
After installing the software, the users were prompted to enter the recovery seed phrase for their cryptocurrency wallets. The lawsuit states that once those recovery phrases were entered, the attackers immediately gained access to the victims’ wallets and transferred the cryptocurrency to addresses under their control. The three plaintiffs claim their combined losses total approximately $1.835 million.
The lawsuit contends that Apple repeatedly promotes the App Store as a trusted marketplace where applications undergo thorough review before being made available to users. The plaintiffs argue that these assurances led them to believe the application was authentic and safe to use.
According to the complaint, Apple did not exercise sufficient oversight to detect and remove the fraudulent application before it reached users. The plaintiffs allege that cybercriminals exploited the company’s reputation for security, allowing the fake wallet to appear legitimate and resulting in significant financial losses.
The case has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In addition to seeking compensation and punitive damages, the plaintiffs are asking the court to require Apple to provide more prominent warnings about cryptocurrency applications and to stop making what they describe as misleading statements regarding the App Store’s safety and review process.
Apple has disputed the broader allegations but confirmed it acted after becoming aware of the impersonation. In a statement provided to MacRumors, an Apple spokesperson said the company removed applications posing as Sparrow Wallet from the App Store and terminated the developer accounts associated with them.
The lawsuit does not determine whether Apple is legally responsible for the losses, and the court has not ruled on the claims. The case will now proceed through the legal process, where the parties’ arguments and Apple’s App Store review practices are expected to receive closer scrutiny.