XRP holders went on the offense, proving once more the level of organization displayed by this community. According to a Class Action Complaint filed on September 16th, 2021, several XRP investors accused tech giant Apple of allowing bad actors to steal their assets and information.
The action was filed by Hadona Diep, a cyber security IT professional, on behalf of other XRP holders in a similar situation in a federal court in the state of Maryland. The plaintiff seek compensation for damages stipulated under federal and state U.S. laws, per the document shared by Court House News.
The XRP holders claimed that Apple allegedly breached the law by “authorizing a malicious application” to be available for download in the “App Store”. In addition, the plaintiffs alleged that the company was aware of the criminal activity enable by the app and still maintain it without notifying users that their financial information “had been compromised”.
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The app in question was called “Toast Plus” apparently used by bad actors as part of a phishing scam. The app’s name and logo were created to imitate that of the popular Toast Wallet, confused users, and steal their funds.
The XRP holders are using the company’s description of the App Store as part of their class action. The tech giant has described their applications provider as follow for the past 10 years:
a safe and trusted place to discover and download apps. But the App Store is more than just a storefront — it’s an innovative destination focused on bringing you amazing experiences. And a big part of those experiences is ensuring that the apps we offer are held to the highest standards for privacy, security, and content. Because we offer nearly two million apps —and we want you to feel good about using every single one of them.
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XRP holders argued that the tech giant had a “thorough” verification process for the apps offer on its provider. Thus, Hadona Diep downloaded Toast Plus in March 2020 to her iPhone.
Later, Diep linked her private keys for around 474 XRP to the wallet or over $400, at the time of writing. The document claims that she intended to “hold” her funds as an investment. Therefore, she stopped checking the app until August 2021.
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At that time, she realized that her account on Toast Plus was deleted on March 3, 2021. Her funds have been stolen. The document claims:
(Toast Plus) created for the sole purpose of stealing cryptocurrency, by obtaining consumers’ cryptocurrency account information and thereafter routing the same to the hackers’ personal accounts.
Diep investigated the matter and tried to contact Apple and several other agencies in the U.S. including the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). The class action has 9 charges agonist Apple including Negligence, Disclosure of Electronic Communications, Violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and others.
The plaintiffs are looking for statutory damages for over $10,000 or in some cases $100 per day of violation, attorneys’ fees, and Apple’s profits obtained from the alleged violations in addition to other compensation. The company is yet to respond to the class action.
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XRP trades at $1,08 with a 2.5% loss in the daily chart.