US Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent a letter to Apple CEOs demanding that companies explain how they review and approve mobile applications for trading and storing cryptocurrencies.
The letter comes days after the FBI warned retail investors that their peers lost over $ 42 million in crypto fraud in less than a year.
“Crypto mobile apps are available to the public through app stores, including the Apple App Store,” Senator wrote to Cook on Thursday, according to Borderland. “While cryptocurrency applications offer investors easy and convenient ways to trade cryptocurrencies, there have been reports of fake crypto applications that have deceived hundreds of investors.”
Fraud prevention
Brown also wants to know if companies monitor the apps they display in stores and how they stop them from “turning” into phishing scams, and whether both companies have notified their users of rogue cryptographic applications in the past.
“While companies offering investments in cryptocurrencies and other related services should take the necessary steps to prevent fraudulent activity, including alerting investors to an increase in fraud, it is equally important that app stores have adequate safeguards in place to prevent fraudulent activity in mobile applications.” adds a letter.
So far, Apple and Google have been silent, although they have until August 10 to respond.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently warned US citizens to exercise extreme caution when downloading cryptocurrency and investment applications as some of them are malicious mobile applications (opens in a new tab) and intended solely to steal the victim’s money.
“The FBI has observed cybercriminals contacting US investors by deceptively claiming to offer legitimate cryptocurrency investment services and persuading investors to download fake mobile applications that cybercriminals have used more and more effectively to defraud investors of their cryptocurrencies,” the Bureau said. . The organization says criminals have so far defrauded 244 victims out of $ 42.7 million.
Even though the cryptocurrency world is in a deep slump (Bitcoin has lost about two-thirds of its value since November 2021), cybercriminals are as active as ever. Some of them use advanced techniques like deepfake movies to get people to think high-profile people endorse their projects. Others steal your identity (opens in a new tab)by creating fake social media accounts for attractive women, asking for “help” or inviting people to co-invest in projects that promise high returns on their investment.
Cryptominers, malware (opens in a new tab) that mine cryptocurrencies are as popular with cybercriminals as ever before, and tokens are still the most common payment method in ransomware attacks. The FBI urges everyone to be extremely careful when downloading apps, make sure they only download them from legitimate sources (for example, Google and Apple’s mobile app repositories), and to enable two-factor authentication on all accounts.
By: Borderland (opens in a new tab)