A fake bitcoin wallet app has appeared at the top of App Store search results despite Apple notoriously having strict policies allowing crypto gamers to publish their apps on the App Store. This app, called Trezor Wallet Suite, is a duplicate version of Trezor, a legitimate crypto app. Members of the crypto community who are looking for digital wallet apps on the App Store must exercise caution to protect themselves from this fake app.
Rafael Yakobi, managing partner at law firm The Crypto Lawyers, posted an in-depth thread on Twitter along with screenshots to prove his claims.
“The first search result for ‘Trezor’ in app store is a malicious application that requests your seed phrase and allows its operators to steal all your cryptocurrency. The name of the malicious application is Trezor Wallet Suite,” Yakobi tweeted.
:rotating_light: Security Warning :rotating_light:
The first search result for “Trezor” in Apple @Appstore is a malicious application that requests your seed phrase and allows its operators to steal all your cryptocurrency.
The malware’s name is “Trezor Wallet Suite”. You can check… pic.twitter.com/vWsXTHpkYK
— Rafael Yakobi (@Deliver8tor) June 19, 2023
As the crypto researcher pointed out, these search results have surfaced for users across the US and UK.
After iOS users Apple has reported the suspicious app on social networking platforms and allegedly removed the Trezor Wallet Suite app from the App Store.
A quick search of the App Store on Wednesday, June 21 did not turn up the fake app on the platform, Gadgets 360 can confirm. In other regions the situation may be different.
Another Twitter thread also claimed that Apple appeared to have removed this app and flagged it as suspicious.
:black_small_square: #Apple The general policy is to remove suspicious apps from the App Store as soon as an alert is received. However, despite the removal of the first malicious app, further searches of the App Store revealed another potentially nefarious application called “MyTREZŌR Suite: One Edition”.
— Amit Ghosh (@AmitGho63588713) June 21, 2023
It is ironic that Apple, which has tight security measures in place and adheres to a much-criticized strict policy against crypto apps on its store, has been slightly hurt by this scam app whose publishers are currently unknown.
This development comes just days after the iPhone maker fell out with two non-custodial digital wallet providers, Zeus and Damus. In both cases, Apple has declared that these apps infringe copyright law app store guidelines.
In April this year, a California appeals court also called Apple’s policy of not allowing app developers to integrate third-party payment methods into their services as ‘unlawful’. The court ruling is expected to bring changes to Apple’s App Store payment practices and could also allow Web3 apps to add more usability to their iOS iterations.
