Apple Kicking Fake Bitcoin Apps Out Of App Store

Apple is reportedly gearing up to stem the influx of counterfeit bitcoin wallets that are showing up in the App Store. According to a report, in the last week or so, more than 10 counterfeit bitcoin apps have made it into the App Store, with some of them designed to steal bitcoin from users that are worth thousands of dollars. Apple told Motherboard, according to the report, that all of the apps have since been removed from the App Store.
The apps were pretending to be legitimate bitcoin wallets, like BitGo, Breadwallet and Coinbase, even using some of the same source code to appear to look just like them. The Breadwallet clone ended up losing customers $20,000 or more, with half of it from one victim alone. It’s not clear how the apps made it past the screening at Apple. Bitcoin developers will, in some cases, make their source code public to boost transparency, but that makes it easier for hackers to spoof the apps, the report noted.

This post was published at Pymnts on August 10, 2016.