Apple was indicted for the Apple Store encryption wallet fraud, and users lost over $1.8 million

On 28 July, Apple was brought before the United States Federal District Court for Northern California for allegedly failing to effectively prevent the use of encrypted currency fraud in App Store. Three users complained of deficiencies in the Apple Security Audit mechanism, which led them to download false encryption wallet applications, resulting in cumulative losses of over $1.8 million. The lawsuit stated that the case involved the use of a bitcoin wallet, “Sparrow Wallet”, but that the official Sparrow Bitcoin wallet did not actually land on the iOS platform. Three users suffered asset losses following the transfer of Bitcoin to that false application, with one user losing approximately $8.75 million, another approximately $8.4 million and the third approximately $120,000. The plaintiff argued that Apple had long promoted App Store ' s rigorous vetting mechanism as a security advantage, claiming that its closed ecology would reduce the risk of malware and fraud and was therefore liable for fraudulent applications on the platform. The lawsuit also cited the public criticism of the founder of Sparrow Bitcoin Wallet, stating that apples had previously allowed counterfeit applications to appear in App Store. The three plaintiffs requested a jury trial and sought recovery of damages and additional compensation, while also requiring Apple to add App Store risk tips and security disclosures. Apple responded that impersonating other applications would be a violation of the App Store rule, and that the company would quickly devolve the relevant application, stating that the Sparrow Wallet counterfeit application did not currently exist in App Store. The Apple previously published data show that in 2025 its review team refused to submit more than 371,000 applications involving counterfeiting, garbage or misleading users。