According to a recent lawsuit, Florida resident Maria Baca believed she beat the market when she invested about $4.6 million worth of cryptocurrency through the Yobit Pro app between February and July 2023. When the app showed a balance of about $7 million, Baca tried to withdraw her funds but was told she needed to deposit an additional $500,000 for “taxes.” Baca made the deposit, but when the app asked for an additional $2 million, she began to realize something was wrong.
When Baca refused to pay the additional ransom, she received “… WhatsApp messages from unidentified cybercriminals threatening to kill her if she did not pay,” her lawsuit states. Baca eventually contacted law enforcement and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which forwarded its complaint to Google the same day. But Baca’s lawsuit claims it took Google three months to remove the app from the Play Store.
Now, Vaca is seeking at least $5 million in damages from Google in California (Google’s lawyers have asked that the case be transferred to the Northern District of California), reflecting her financial losses. Vaca’s lawsuit claims that she only downloaded the apps because she believed Google was successfully blocking the fraudulent apps from appearing on the Google Play Store.
“As a result of Google’s material misrepresentations and other fraudulent conduct, Ms. Baca has suffered substantial harm, including but not limited to financial losses of more than $5 million, severe emotional and psychological distress, and the loss of the real estate business she has devoted most of her adult life to building,” her lawsuit claims.
In addition to her own account, Vaca’s lawsuit claims that “approximately 12,759 other Android device users have installed Yobit Pro on their devices via Google Play, and at least five (5) of them have had similar experiences to (Vaca).”
Google’s latest fight against scammers
Google seems to be well aware that fraudulent cryptocurrency apps are occasionally rampant on the Google Play Store. In April, Google sued two developers who claimed the company approved 87 fraudulent apps on the Google Play Store, affecting 100,000 people and at least 8,700 US residents.
Although Yobit Pro isn’t specifically mentioned in Google’s lawsuit, the same basic scam elements show up. “When victims attempt to withdraw their funds, they are unable to do so. Scammers will often respond to attempts to withdraw funds by requesting additional investments, taxes, or fees, promising that these payments will allow the victim to access their account. However, no matter how much money the victim hands over or how much the scammer promises, once the victim “invests” their money, it is gone,” Google’s lawsuit states.
Google’s lawsuit acknowledges the reputational damage the cryptocurrency scam app has done to the company’s app store. “…Google Play can continue to be an app distribution platform that users only want to use when they have confidence in the integrity of the apps. By using Google Play to carry out their fraudulent scheme, Defendants have threatened the integrity of Google Play and the user experience,” Google’s lawsuit states.
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