Apple sued over 1.8 million dollars taken through a fake wallet: the closed store was its main argument, now it is its main problem

Three people say they lost 1.8 million dollars (around 1.6 million euros) in bitcoin because they downloaded an app from the App Store that looked like the real thing. The lawsuit was filed on Friday at the District Court for Northern California and is aimed directly at Apple.

The app was called Sparrow Wallet. Here is the crucial detail: the real Sparrow, a bitcoin wallet, does not exist for iOS at all. Which means there was no genuine version to compare the fake against - anyone searching for it in Apple's store found only the copy. According to the lawsuit, James Ramirez lost around 875,000 dollars, Christopher Ellis around 840,000, and Jaylen Delgado around 120,000.

The plaintiffs are not going after some technical detail. They are going straight at the sentence Apple uses to sell the difference between itself and the competition. „As part of a long-running marketing campaign, Apple positioned itself, its products and its services as offering a level of security and reliability superior to any competing technology company,” the complaint states. „By retaining exclusive control over which apps are permitted on Apple devices, the company structured its platform so that consumers depend entirely on its promise of safety.”

That is the same argument Apple has used for years to fend off regulators demanding the ecosystem be opened up - third-party stores, sideloading. The walled garden is safer, runs the defence. The lawsuit says: if it is safer, then bear the responsibility when it is not.

There is one more thing. The creator of the real Sparrow, Craig Raw, had publicly complained that fake copies were sitting in the store - meaning the warning did not come from an anonymous user but from the man who built the product. Apple declined to comment on the lawsuit, but stated that apps impersonating others violate its rules and are removed quickly. It added that there is currently no copy of Sparrow Wallet in the store.

The company also cited its own analysis: in 2025 it rejected over 371,000 submitted apps that copied others, were spam or misled users. The number is impressive and simultaneously proves nothing - 371,000 caught says nothing about how many got through. That is precisely the question before the court.

The three are asking for a jury, their money back and damages, but they are asking for something else too: that Apple place warnings and risk explanations in the App Store. That is the demand the company wants least, because it is not paid once. If the court grants it, „reviewed by Apple” stops meaning a guarantee and becomes just one more step in a process.