i don't think Google can do anything about this type of scam applications on their platform because the apps aren't manually audited and there is nothing obvious about the scam that could be automatically detected so their system can't catch them.
According to this, Google is manually reviewing apps since 2015. Not all of them, but at least some.
Developers no longer have free rein to immediately publish apps onto Google Play without any oversight. Google has announced that apps distributed through its store are now manually tested and reviewed to uncover app violations and malware. And much like Apple, sometimes it's real people handling that job. "This new process involves a team of experts who are responsible for identifying violations of our developer policies earlier in the app lifecycle," Google wrote in a blog post.
The new system has actually been in place for a couple months, and according to TechCrunch, Google hasn't received any complaints from developers about delays. It seems no one's even noticed the change. That's got a lot to do with Google's approach; not everything here is being done by hand. The company is combining the use of automated tools — which scan apps for viruses and other obvious Google Play no-nos — with human reviewers who jump in when the system flags something unusual. "Whatever the machines can catch today, the machines do. And whatever we need humans to weigh in on, humans do," Purnima Kochikar, Play's director of business development, told TechCrunch.
SourceSo, if Google is manually reviewing some apps before they are available on PlayStore, they should at least prioritize those developers that are submitting the app for the first time. First time submitting an app? Manual review. As simple as that, especially something as specific as crypto wallet. Many scammers would have been caught in that case since those would be the ones attempting something like that.
But let's say that Google can't stop all of them, which is probably true, then why at least they can't react faster when removing an obvious fake app?
In this case last month it took Google more than one month to remove fake Atomic wallet, despite bunch of reviews saying that app is scam, people reporting loosing their money etc. In that case fake wallet had exactly the same logo and very similar name, so I am not surprised that some fell for that scam.
like many other things it is up to the user to spend 5 seconds and do some research to figure out whether the app is malicious or not.
That's true, in the end its our own responsibility to take care of our security, but it still sucks to see cases like this, which could have been avoided.