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Musician G. Love lost his life savings after downloading a fake Ledger Live app from Apple\u2019s Mac App Store, <\/span>according to a post made to his X account<\/span>. Noted blockchain investigator ZachXBT <\/span>traced<\/span> the stolen 5.92 bitcoin, worth about $424,000, through nine transactions to deposit addresses at KuCoin, an exchange with a track record of compliance problems that he believes will offer little help in recovering the funds.<\/span><\/p>\n The theft combined a counterfeit app with a critical mistake by the musician. While setting up his hardware wallet on a new computer, G. Love likely entered his seed phrase into the lookalike software. <\/span>On its website<\/span>, Ledger includes requests to input seed phrases as a warning sign that a user could be using fraudulent software. Hardware wallets exist precisely to avoid exposing that phrase, yet he did so under the assumption that Apple\u2019s App Store had vetted the program. The funds vanished immediately after he confirmed the phrase, wiping out nearly a decade of retirement savings he had accumulated in bitcoin.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI been in the crypto circus since 2017,\u201d <\/span>said Love in a follow-up post<\/span>. \u201cToday they caught me off guard. It was my own damn fault for not being more diligent. But let it serve as a warning. There\u2019s so many scams.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I had a really tough day today I lost my retirement fund in a hack\/Scam when I switched my @Ledger<\/a> over to my new computer and by accident downloaded a malicious ledger app from the @Apple<\/a> store. All my BTC gone in an instant.<\/p>\n \u2014 G. Love (@glove) April 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n According to a post by ZachXBT<\/span>, Apple has seemingly pulled the malicious app from the Mac App Store. However, the tech giant has issued no public comment on the breach. This is not the first time counterfeit crypto software has slipped through app store reviews and drained user funds. In 2023, a fake Ledger Live app on Microsoft\u2019s store <\/span>stole nearly $600,000 in bitcoin from multiple victims<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n G. Love\u2019s case shows the level of personal responsibility required for true bitcoin self-custody. Holders need a solid grasp of operational security measures and the way transactions settle on the Bitcoin network. That combination has long been seen as a barrier to broader mainstream use, at least in terms of adoption in the way that was originally intended in the Bitcoin whitepaper.<\/span><\/p>\n Physical theft is another potential risk to holding keys directly. Criminals have ramped up targeted attacks on crypto owners, using violence to force transfers in what are commonly called wrench attacks. One recent example involved <\/span>a brazen $11 million daylight robbery<\/span>, while <\/span>a French tax agent was also accused of selling personal data on crypto users<\/span> to organized crime groups for the purpose of these sorts of physical attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n Even sophisticated players with dedicated security teams have been hit. North Korean agents allegedly spent six months infiltrating Drift Protocol through targeted social engineering before executing <\/span>a $285 million hack<\/span>. In a separate incident, the FBI arrested a man accused of <\/span>stealing $46 million worth of cryptocurrency from a U.S. government reserve<\/span>. The accused man is the son of the head of a government contractor tasked with securing the crypto funds.<\/span><\/p>\n it seems Apple does not want people documenting the fact they allow fake apps on the App Store. pic.twitter.com\/1mnkSsZ9R7<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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