Apple has allowed yet another fraudulent app to sneak through its review process, and this one managed to scam several users out of thousands of dollars. On February 16, the developers of Rabby Wallet warned that a fake iOS app was impersonating their crypto wallet on Apple’s App Store. Ironically, the legitimate app was still under review by Apple, while the fake app was live for days before Apple finally removed it from the App Store on Monday.
A user named ManoloDF tried to spread awareness on Reddit as well as the Apple Community forums over the weekend. The user is a member of the Rabby Discord server and claimed that other members had already lost well over $100,000 combined.
“I was also scammed for about 5k usd from this fraudulent app this morning,” said Turnssy1 on Apple’s Community forums. “I have raised a support case with apple to see if theres any means of reimbursement as the app has been reported multiple times prior and is still standing 4 years now. Will provide an update on the case if anything comes from my report too.”
“I used the Fake App and lost 24k USD, which is painful and I am so disappointed in Apple, that a fake App made it to the App Store prior to the real one,” said Steff_Zug.
While it’s unclear precisely how this fake app wasn’t spotted and removed before it could do any damage, there’s a chance that it was a more sophisticated scheme than Apple simply allowing a fake crypto wallet app through its review process.
ManoloDF explained in a Reddit comment what might have actually happened:
It seems this is a Long Con based on feedback from someone that works at Support. What apparently happened here is this app was vetted and approved years ago into AppStore as I assume just some basic personal finance app, something generic. Then what they did is an “Update” that rebranded into the Phishing Wallet with Rabby Wallet artwork recently (Playing off the excitement they were releasing a mobile wallet) and their update was approved before and created this whole mess.
Nevertheless, Apple would have to approve such an update as well.
This incident comes on the heels of the fake LastPass app and the months-long survival of the movie piracy app Kimi. Apple needs to make changes, and soon, because it’s clear that the app review process isn’t nearly as successful as it once was.
