A new class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple for allowing a fake wallet app “Toast Plus” to be listed in its App Store.
The application allegedly stole cryptocurrencies from users who filed the complaint against Big Tech in federal court in Maryland.
Summary
Apple under class action from crypto investors
The users and crypto investors allegedly found the application created by the hackers directly on Apple’s online store, the App Store, and saw their money disappear after downloading it.
This is how the misleading situation is described in the lawsuit against Apple:
“Plaintiff believed that Toast Plus was a version of Toast Wallet, a well known cryptocurrency wallet, as the names were similar and the logo used for the application in the App Store was the same or nearly identical”.
The complaint filed in federal court in Maryland by Hadona Diep accuses Apple of allowing hackers to insert a spoof or “phishing” application disguised as a cryptocurrency wallet into its online App Store, causing the plaintiff and others to download and install a criminal gateway into their cryptocurrency accounts.
The allegations speak of negligence, fraud and a number of privacy-specific computer malfeasance. Specifically, the Big Tech giant would be liable because it failed to control the software distributed by its online shop.
The complaint also points out that anyone who downloaded the Toast Plus software is part of the class action and is:
“entitled to statutory damages of the greater of $10,000 or $100 per day for each day of violation, actual and punitive damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and Defendant’s profits obtained from the above described violations”.
Apple and the story of its plaintiff: lost 474 XRP
Maryland resident Hadona Diep allegedly transferred her 474 XRP (Ripple’s cryptocurrency) in January 2018 to a crypto wallet that was closed the following month.
In the lawsuit, Diep describes that she then linked her XRP private key, or a seed phrase, into Toast Plus in March 2021.
It was not until August 2021 that Diep would then check and discover that not only did she not have XRP in her wallet, but that her account was ‘deleted’ on 3 March 2021.
Calls to the Toast Plus company, Apple and then law enforcement followed, according to the complaint, but no one took responsibility. The lawsuit says she lost more than $5,000.
Apple doesn’t monitor enough: more stories of crypto thieves
In early July 2021, another situation involving Apple’s lack of attention and scrutiny with its crypto-related services was revealed.
In fact, an identity thief was able to purchase nearly $100,000 worth of bitcoin and more than $600,000 worth of luxury goods using stolen credit cards and Apple Pay.
His name is Aaron Laws, from Atlanta, and he did this by purchasing more than 500 stolen credit card numbers on the dark web, then putting them on mobile phones equipped with Apple Pay to make purchases without the physical cards.
Laws’ purchases allegedly took place between February 2017 and December 2018, both online but also in Apple Stores and jewellery stores.
