"Unbelievable. Bad day. Downloaded fake Leather Wallet app from App Store and got scammed," one user wrote on Twitter on March 11. In the comments, another user said he was also emptied of his years of Ethereum savings by downloading a similar fake app.
According to Bleeping Computer, Leather Wallet is a well-invested scam app. It was developed by LetalComRu, rated 4.9/5 stars, using the logo of the Leather cold wallet company to fool users. On Apple's app store, the app has more than 200 comments. Phone Arena assessed that most of the comments have similar content, created to make the prey lose their guard.
Leather Wallet Scam App on Apple Store.
Cryptocurrency owners typically manage their assets using a cryptocurrency wallet. They can use a hot wallet (a wallet with a constant network connection), a cold wallet (also known as a hardware wallet, without a network connection, usually in the form of a USB stick), or a warm wallet (a hybrid of a hot and cold wallet, often connected via NFC) to store the private keys used for transactions.
Leather is a type of cold wallet that many people choose to manage tokens and other digital assets such as NFTs. Leather wallet is famous for its convenience and security. It is compact like a USB with a screen to display transaction information and confirmation. To date, Leather has not provided an application on the App Store and users need to go to the company's homepage to download the wallet software to their device.
In response to the constant reports of users losing money due to downloading fake apps on their iPhones, Leather has announced on X that they have not yet put the app on the App Store. Users should absolutely not download the app or enter the secret key phrase. If they have downloaded and filled in their information, they should immediately transfer their money to a new wallet. If their secret key phrase is revealed, the scammer will drain all their money from their wallet.
Leather said he contacted Apple a week ago but was not immediately resolved, so many people continued to download the scam app and get robbed. By the afternoon of March 12, an Apple spokesperson told Bleeping Computer that the app had been removed from the App Store after two weeks. The developer was also blacklisted.
Apple doesn’t disclose app download numbers, so it’s impossible to quantify the damage. But the continued presence of fake Leather Wallets on the App Store is a sign that iPhones aren’t always safer than Android devices.
In the case of Leather Wallet, the scammers took advantage of the company’s lack of an app on the App Store to trick users. A month ago, a fake app called LassPass also imitated the popular password manager LastPass to trick users. The scammers also managed to get past Apple by getting the app on the App Store, but it was quickly removed after LastPass reported it.