Apple Approves Fake App Before Real Rabby Wallet, Users’ Funds Stolen

Users report significant losses due to the fake Rabby Wallet app, including one reporting a $5000 loss, another experiencing a 10% portfolio loss, and an NFT collector reporting $40,000 worth of ETH drained from their wallet. 

A fake version of the Rabby Wallet app, a popular crypto wallet developed by DeBank Global Pte Ltd., was tricking users and stealing their funds on the Apple App Store. DeBank’s team confirmed that any app available on the store currently is fake, as its official app is still under review and yet to be approved by Apple.

For your information, Rabby Wallet’s mobile app’s beta version was announced on 16 February by team DeBank. However, scammers acted quickly and uploaded the app’s fake version to the iOS App Store, which was a wallet drainer and had no connection with the real app.

Interestingly, this fake version was approved by Apple before the actual wallet app, prompting users to download the drainer and get scammed.

The fake Rabby Wallet app, created by a developer called “Solution Development,” appeared on the App Store under the name “Rabby Wallet & Crypto Solution” and was detected after four days. A thread warning others about the fake app was posted on Rabby Wallet’s Apple discussion board and Discord channel with screenshots from scammed users.

The fake Rabby App on the Apple App Store

Affected users have also created a thread on Reddit to warn others about the fake app. One user claimed that a fake app by “VIET LONG FINANCIAL INVESTMENT JOINT STOCK COMPANY” has been approved, causing users to lose cryptocurrencies, with a user losing around 14 ETH.

“This scammer’s approved AppStore App called “Rabby Wallet & Crypto Solution” is tricking people into thinking it is the genuine one, they enter the seed phrase or private key, and moments later all of their life savings, crypto belongings are GONE!” a user u/CryptoCurrency wrote on Reddit.

Rabby Wallet team posted a statement on X to notify users about the presence of a fake app and to avoid downloading it. The fake app has now been removed by Apple.

However, this isn’t the first instance where fake apps appeared on a credible platform like the Apple App Store and deceived users. On February 7, 2024, Hackread.com published a warning from LastPass, urging users to avoid downloading fraudulent applications and remain cautious after a fake app was uploaded to the Apple App Store, posing as the legitimate LastPass Password Manager app. The app was developed by Parvati Patel and closely resembled LastPass’ branding and user interface.

In July 2023, Apple approved a fake THREADS app, which subsequently ranked first on the European Apple Store, despite the original app being launched by META just days before and wasn’t available in Europe. Nevertheless, such incidents are steadily rising, making Apple’s app review and approval process doubtful and questionable.

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