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Bitcoin Scam App Approved by Apple Robs iPhone User of $600,000+

Yeah... Apple needs better checking. I mean they decline our app regularly because of nitpicking but scamming is fine...

On the other hand: People are way to careless. Rule #1 on the Internet: Never trust anything. Always double check and even then be skeptical. The internet is like wild west and a playground for all types of shady stuff. The App Store is no different. Apple might reduce the risk, but you're never safe anywhere on the Internet.

Sadly: People never learned (or "forgot") how to use their brain.
 
jonnyb098 said:
Of course. Or you could just trade money for food. I still think it’s pointless until it’s accepted for real people to pay their bills, buy food , etc.
Right now it’s a dork money that is making the rich richer and as I stated earlier it’s a really good way to make dirty money clean.

the vast majority of the planet barely know what it is. People come to the US for example and make loads of money and can take that money back to their countries and love like a king or queen. The US dollar is very much worth something to many parts of the world.
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And an even larger majority understand what it is and dismiss it on that basis. A commodity useful to drug smugglers/dealers and hitme, and which is stolen quite often, while fluctuating wildly both up and down, isn’t useful in any reals sense as a “currency”. Especially when no government accepts taxes paid in it.
 
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At a bare minimum, developers that have a company name (vs listing it as being done personally) should have to provide proof that they actually exist, and Apple should have a system in place to both verify and allow people to report issues. Apps that fall into special categories such as financial where users should be expected to hand over credentials should have further requirements on the developer to prove who they are. Complicated by of course contract software houses, but, they could get the developer account setup from the company paying for the work so they can still prove chain of custody.

This is pure laziness / sloppiness from Apple. If you are going to sell the world on the fact your whole reason for the store existing and the exhorberant fees on digital purchases you didn't create that aren't physically stored / transmitted over Apple networks is for a secure and safe user experience, then do the bare minimum.

At least if they weren't able to steal someone else's corporate identity, downloading a financial/banking app made by "Joe Schmoe" might cause people pause.
 
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Oh, I’m going to invest $600,000 with someone I don’t know, download an app that I don’t check to see if it is from the company I want. Totally someone else’s fault. I have no responsibility here, none. I want my money back from someone who didn’t steal it from me in the first place

This is wrong on so many levels. Think he will get audited by the irs for not properly reporting his income?
 
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Relentless Power said:
Bitcoin is over the 40 mark if I recall from last I checked, which makes sense given its popularity right now with cryptocurrency. I think Apples vetting process is fairly efficient, but unfortunately, not every app isn’t immediately detected for fraud.
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That is why it’s fraud. No one would get an app called. “I’ll steal from you”
 
xWhiplash said:
You can certainly claim its beneficial. They are not saying they prevent 100% of all cases. There has been proof many years that they cannot capture 100% of everything. NOTHING absolutely NOTHING can. They can still say its a safe environment.
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Hmm...what if your bank had the same performance...would your money be safe?
 
zorinlynx said:
This is another example of why cryptocurrency is a bad thing, on top of being bad for the environment.
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That is because cryptocurrency is not regulated, if there would be regulations in place this will never happen. Which would defeat the purpose of cryptocurrency. :) Using hardware wallets like Nano X or Trezor are good choices but the end-user is responsible to know how to use them.

To me, the end-user is 100% faulty. If I have 200K in bitcoin, I would definitely contact Trezor before I install an iPhone app that is not advertised on product's website. Is a delicate matter honestly, I mean why would you install a Trezor app, when their website does not advertise it in any way, shape and form? That is why they created a hardware wallet (not an app) in the first place to store your keys, LOL.
 
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TECK said:
That is because cryptocurrency is not regulated, if there would be regulations in place this will never happen. Which would defeat the purpose of cryptocurrency. :) Using hardware wallets like Nano X or Trezor are good choices but the end-user is responsible to know how to use them.

To me, the end-user is 100% faulty. If I have 200K in bitcoin, I would definitely contact Trezor before I install an iPhone app that is not advertised on product's website. Is a delicate matter honestly, I mean why would you install a Trezor app, when their website does not advertise it in any way, shape and form? That is why they created a hardware wallet in the first place to store your keys, LOL.
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Honestly, it should be Apple's job to verify that a developer claiming to be company X is company X. Period. Full Stop. Same with Amazon and some of the crap happening on their ecommerce platform.

I remember when it used to be hard to get an SSL certificate for a domain, and you had to fax in copies of your articles of incorporation to Verisign and prove your company both existed and was yours. Now days, everyone takes your money with a wink and a nod and lets you sell anything you want under whatever name you want until you get caught.
 
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mike090910 said:
Seems that the Coalition of App Fairness has a solution. Let ANYONE post ANY APP and not be responsible to ANYONE. Sorry, the wild wild west is not a place for apps. Even if a few bad apples come in, better Apple to deal with them.
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Indeed. The so called “coalition of app fairness” Is a joke themselves
 
dguisinger said:
Honestly, it should be Apple's job to verify that a developer claiming to be company X is company X. Period. Full Stop. Same with Amazon and some of the crap happening on their ecommerce platform.

I remember when it used to be hard to get an SSL certificate for a domain, and you had to fax in copies of your articles of incorporation to Verisign and prove your company both existed and was yours. Now days, everyone takes your money with a wink and a nod and lets you sell anything you want under whatever name you want until you get caught.
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Apple argue that Amazon is full of fake companies selling fake goods with fake ratings...well so is the App Store. On this occasion a fake company with a fake app
 
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I have to admit, I was initially wanting to blame Apple for this (or give them some culpability.)
But the more I look into it, well, the more I think that this guy was just kind of dumb (and unlucky.)

Yes, Apple provides a "walled garden." And yes, we as consumers have the expectation that it's safe. But I suppose the real question is "safe from what?"

If you mean "safe from everything bad" then you could clearly blame Apple for any online/email/phone scam. (Or your cell provider that claims to block spam calls for that matter.)

I'm kind of coming around to the idea that this guy was just kinda clueless.
 
sirdir said:
Well, Apple claims they have to play gatekeeper because we're not safe otherwise. So they should take responsibility when they screw up.
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This. You can't have your CEO running his mouth about the importance of the monopoly of the App store, and not allowing side loading of apps due to security and privacy concerns, and then completely take no ownership when your App approvers aren't doing their due diligence.

Despite the claims of the usual members trying to get their WWDC invites by defending Apple on anything, it doesn't work both ways.
 
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dguisinger said:
Honestly, it should be Apple's job to verify that a developer claiming to be company X is company X. Period. Full Stop.
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I agree with you on the principle, but in real life this never happens. I did not read the Apple Store user agreement but I'm pretty sure Apple has a clause for avoiding these loses. Little user is always the looser. And since everyone knows this from its own experience, they should not trust some app to operate their virtual currency, without some basic check. That's my only point.

We see every day emails and Facebook ads showing these scams on a regular basis, I remember I saw yesterday for a site impersonating PizzaHut for $1, on Facebook. I bet the scammer made money because people just don't look. Hell, I even see apps that allow you to manage bank accounts, not developed by actual bank. I know this because there were two apps almost identical and I had to visit the bank website to install the real one. Imagine, I would install the other app and the dev empties my bank account. Is definitely my fault.
 
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