Warning: Scam Bitcoin Wallets on Apple App Store – Report & Stay Safe!

[Yousefbitq]

Hello Bitcoin community,

I want to warn everyone about two fraudulent Bitcoin wallets currently available on the Apple App Store. I personally tested them, and they steal user funds once a deposit exceeds a certain amount in USD value.

🚨 Scam Wallets:
   1.   SatGuards Bitcoin Wallet : https://apps.apple.com/jo/app/satguards-bitcoin-wallet/id6749847943
   2.   Bitcoin Wallet: BTC Crypto : https://apps.apple.com/jo/app/bitcoin-wallet-btc-crypto/id6748661577

❌ How the Scam Works:
   •   At first, small transactions may appear to work.
   •   However, once you send in a larger amount (above a hidden threshold), the funds are stolen by the app developers.
   •   These apps are intentionally designed to trick beginners into believing they are safe Bitcoin wallets.

✅ What You Should Do:
   •   Do NOT download or use these wallets under any circumstances.
   •   If you have installed them, move your funds immediately to a reputable, open-source, and well-audited Bitcoin wallet.
   •   Please take a moment to report these apps directly to Apple so they can be removed from the App Store.

📢 Spread the Word:

These fraudulent apps put new users at serious risk of losing their Bitcoin. The more reports and warnings we share, the faster we can get them taken down and protect others.

Stay safe, verify everything, and remember:
Not your keys, not your coins.

[NotATether]

Apple's "wallet garden" has failed us again.

Time to use Android wallets if you really care about your funds safety (and insist on storing your money on a phone instead of on an airgapped desktop or a hardware device). The App Store has developer IDs in the entry for each app but these are not displayed prominently, mixing up the real wallets with the fake ones.

Also there's the risk a developer can sell their Apple Developer account to a scammer and use the same ID. Not government ID, but Apple Developer identifier.

[SFR10]

Please take a moment to report these apps directly to Apple so they can be removed from the App Store.[...] The more reports and warnings we share, the faster we can get them taken down and protect others.

It appears that the Apple App Store still requires having an Apple ID before we can report ^{[unfortunately]}... I'm still not sure what their report page looks like, but you might want to add some proof to the opening post, so we can use it as a reference for our reports.

[albon]

If you've tried them yourself, how much money did you deposit and lose?

As for me, I use popular, open-source wallets and cold wallets. I'm not a fan of Apple and Android wallets. Although there are many legitimate wallets, this doesn't prevent the existence of fraudulent ones already available in these stores. Therefore, anyone who wants to use any wallet should first conduct their research and review the wallet's ratings. It’s always better to stick with popular wallets and download them from their official websites.

Anyway, thank you, OP, for this warning.

[tabas]

Thanks for the warning OP. I am not an apple iOs user, but I know people who will benefit from the warnings like this one.

Time to use Android wallets if you really care about your funds safety (and insist on storing your money on a phone instead of on an airgapped desktop or a hardware device).

There are also Android wallets that could be exploited. It's best to have a hardware device or an airgapped. They're the best choice so far. What's good about with the android platform, it's easier to report when the same scam wallets appear.

[Joel_Jantsen]

Time to use Android wallets if you really care about your funds safety (and insist on storing your money on a phone instead of on an airgapped desktop or a hardware device). The App Store has developer IDs in the entry for each app but these are not displayed prominently, mixing up the real wallets with the fake ones.

What makes you think Android PlayStore doesn't have any of such money stealing apps or wallets? Infact, apple does provide a layer of security as compared to lot of Android alternative stores where scam wallets are listed. Android is a big red flag when it comes to security especially with the third party apps. You could literally install an app in the background while you click on some link. There is a reason why a plethora of these Chinese data stealing apps exist on Android playstores and not Apple.

[goldkingcoiner]

I am glad I do not own a fruitphone.  

You would think with the prices people pay that they would get better security guarantees, especially when it comes to the official app store of Apple? I am aware that Android has similar issues but you get what you pay for with android (and even more). Can't say the same about Apple.

[The Cryptovator]

I want to warn everyone about two fraudulent Bitcoin wallets currently available on the Apple App Store. I personally tested them, and they steal user funds once a deposit exceeds a certain amount in USD value.

🚨 Scam Wallets:
   

Code:

1.	[b]SatGuards Bitcoin Wallet[/b] : https://apps.apple.com/jo/app/satguards-bitcoin-wallet/id6749847943
	2.	[b]Bitcoin Wallet: BTC Crypto[/b] : https://apps.apple.com/jo/app/bitcoin-wallet-btc-crypto/id6748661577

Always remember to post scam or phishing links into code so no one will click on the link. Otherwise people may click from curiosity or by mistake, which would lead to downloading the scam wallet. Thanks for sharing with us and warning our community; we should take a lesson from this post and be careful. I am curious: how have you found these wallets, and why try them? There are a lot of noncustodial wallets that exist where funds would be safely stored.

It's quite surprising people still trust custodial wallets. We have seen a lot of cases where often we see they scam us or freeze funds. There is no point in using such web wallets or custodial wallets anymore. Always prefer to use a hardware wallet; at least use a noncustodial wallet if you can't afford to buy a hardware wallet. So please be careful when a new wallet launches on the market.

[SFR10]

It's quite surprising people still trust custodial wallets.

Unfortunately, this is a direct result of others introducing them to this field, without showing them the proper steps in safeguarding their funds ^{[for the most part]}.

BTW, while we're still waiting for @Yousefbitq to update the opening post with valid evidence, I managed to find the Android version of "Bitcoin Wallet : BTC & Crypto ^{[archived version]}":
^{- All of their reviews appear to be fake!}

Code:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flx.cryptokeeper

[ovcijisir]

Thank you for the info Yousefbitq! To add to your post I recently discovered that I can't generate new seed while being offline on my Blockstream Green wallet.

I planned to create cold wallet by factory resetting old phone, downloading Blockstream Green, then going completely offline, generateing seed and few deposit addresses, and finally factory resetting the phone again.

To my surprise I would get error message every time when I tried to generate seed offline! To me that implies potential.threat and security issue for relativly renowned wallet, not some no-name wallet that someone wrote over night. Who knows what is being sent or received in that time when new seed is generated.

Just another warning to be careful of the software we install on our devices!

[albon]

[....]

Excuse me, but what I know is that Blockstream Green Wallet is a hot wallet, not a cold wallet. That’s why it requires an internet connection when generating the recovery seed, not offline... Afterwards, you can still keep your assets stored in it while keeping your old phone completely offline.

Indeed, we must be careful with the programs we install on our phones, and we must ensure that we have the official application downloaded.

[ovcijisir]

[....]

Excuse me, but what I know is that Blockstream Green Wallet is a hot wallet, not a cold wallet. That’s why it requires an internet connection when generating the recovery seed, not offline... Afterwards, you can still keep your assets stored in it while keeping your old phone completely offline.

~

Maybe I didn't explained very good I'm aware that Blockstream Green is hot wallet, but I intended to use it just to generate seed words. Then I planned to copy those seed words on a piece of paper and Cryptosteel cold wallet. Finally I I planned to factory reset mobile phone to delete hot wallet and all information about it.

But the thing is I could not generate new seed while being completely offline, because I received error message and couldn't proceed further. I already made one more post on forum about it, but other users reported that they could generate new seed on airgapped mobile phone. So I guess the issue is linked to mobile phone model or software version od Green wallet.

Anyways I find that generating seed on mobile wallet while online as unsafe practice, specially if you store more significant amounts of BTC. And if the option of generating new seed offline is disabled on purpose this app should be considered as high risk app.

[Shishir99]

I want to warn everyone about two fraudulent Bitcoin wallets currently available on the Apple App Store. I personally tested them, and they steal user funds once a deposit exceeds a certain amount in USD value.

🚨 Scam Wallets:
   1.   SatGuards Bitcoin Wallet : https://apps.apple.com/jo/app/satguards-bitcoin-wallet/id6749847943
   2.   Bitcoin Wallet: BTC Crypto : https://apps.apple.com/jo/app/bitcoin-wallet-btc-crypto/id6748661577

❌ How the Scam Works:
   •   At first, small transactions may appear to work.
   •   However, once you send in a larger amount (above a hidden threshold), the funds are stolen by the app developers.
   •   These apps are intentionally designed to trick beginners into believing they are safe Bitcoin wallets.

Thanks for reporting it here.
I appreciate that you spend your time and money testing these wallets and care to inform the community about them. Not many of us are willing to lose our money to test some wallets. I am not an Apple user; it's not helping me anyway, but I believe this thread would help other Apple users avoid these wallets. Unfortunately, people don't do their research before they install any wallets. They check once the funds start to disappear from the wallet. Apple needs to remove these wallet apps from the app store.