Apple sued after alleged App Store crypto scam cost users $1.8M

Apple is being sued for alleged negligence regarding its App Store information measures. In a suit filed connected Friday successful the U.S. District Court of Northern California, 3 plaintiffs assertion they were tricked into downloading and installing a fraudulent crypto wallet app, starring them to collectively suffer much than $1.8 million.

The suit centers connected Apple’s assertion that it secures its App Store by reviewing apps earlier they spell unrecorded to support users from fraudulent and malicious apps. In this case, the plaintiffs downloaded an app called Sparrow Wallet, adjacent though the authoritative Sparrow Bitcoin wallet is not disposable connected iOS.

The plaintiffs transferred their Bitcoin to the fraudulent app, losing ample amounts of the virtual currency, according to the complaint. Plaintiff James Ramirez mislaid astir $875,000; plaintiff Christopher Ellis mislaid astir $840,000, and plaintiff Jalen Delgado mislaid astir $120,000.

The ailment targets 1 of Apple’s longtime competitory arguments: that its choky power implicit its App Store makes its level safer than those offered by its rivals. The institution has utilized this assertion to propulsion backmost against deregulation of the app ecosystem, including third-party app stores and sideloading.

“As portion of a sustained selling campaign, Apple has positioned itself, its products and services, arsenic offering a level of information and trustworthiness superior to immoderate competing exertion company,” the caller filing states. “This includes assurances astir the information of applications distributed done its App Store. By retaining exclusive power implicit which apps are permitted connected Apple devices, Apple has structured its level to guarantee that consumers beryllium wholly connected its committedness of information and reliability,” it reads.

The ailment besides accuses Apple of knowingly hosting fraudulent apps, pointing to nationalist disapproval by Sparrow Bitcoin Wallet’s creator, Craig Raw, who said Apple had allowed fake Sparrow Wallet apps to stay connected the App Store.

The 3 are asking for a proceedings by assemblage and question to recoup their mislaid wealth and different damages. They besides privation Apple to supply warnings and disclosures astir the App Store’s risks.

Apple declined to remark connected the lawsuit. The institution did basal down its information measures, telling TechCrunch that apps impersonating others are a usurpation of its guidelines and it takes swift enactment to region them. Apple added that determination are presently nary Sparrow Wallet copycats connected the App Store.

The institution besides pointed to its latest analysis of its ecosystem, which recovered that successful 2025 it rejected more than 371,000 submissions that copied different apps, were spam, oregon different misled users.