Florida resident Maria Vaca believed she was beating the market when between February and July of 2023, she invested in about $4.6 million worth of cryptocurrency through the app Yobit Pro, according to a recent lawsuit. When the app reflected a balance of about $7 million, Vaca attempted to withdraw the funds, but was told she'd need to deposit an additional $500,000 for "taxes." Vaca made the deposit, but began to realize something was wrong when the app requested an additional $2 million.
When Vaca refused to pay the additional ransom, she received "...messages on WhatsApp from the unidentified cyber-criminals threatening to kill her if she did not make a deposit," according to her lawsuit. Finally, Vaca contacted law enforcement and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which forwarded its complaint to Google the same day. But Vaca's lawsuit alleges Google took three months to remove the app from the Play Store.
Now, Vaca is suing Google in the state of California (Google's attorneys have requested that the case move to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California) for at least $5 million in damages, reflecting her monetary loss. Vaca's lawsuit says she only downloaded the app because she believed Google was successfully preventing scam apps from becoming available on the Google Play store.
"As a result of Google’s material misrepresentations and other deceptive conduct, Ms. Vaca has been significantly damaged, 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 spent most of her adult life trying to build," her lawsuit states.
Aside from her own account, Vaca's lawsuit alleges, "Apparently, approximately 12,759 other Android device users installed Yobit Pro on their devices via Google Play, and at least five (5) of them had similar experiences to that of [Vaca]."
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Google's recent fight against scammers
Google appears to be well aware that fraudulent crypto apps have, at times, proliferated on the Google Play store. In April, Google sued two developers the company said managed to get 87 fraudulent apps approved on the Google Play store, affecting 100,000 people and at least 8,700 U.S. residents.
Though Yobit Pro wasn't mentioned specifically in Google's lawsuit, the same basic scam elements appear. "When victims attempt to withdraw funds, they cannot do so. The fraudsters frequently respond to attempts to withdraw funds by requesting additional investment, taxes, or fees, promising that these payments will allow victims to access their accounts. But no matter how much money the victim hands over or how many promises the fraudsters make, the moment the victims “invest” the money, it is gone," Google's lawsuit states.
Google's lawsuit acknowledges the reputational harm done to the company's app store by the crypto scam apps. "...Google Play can continue to be an app-distribution platform that users want to use only if users feel confident in the integrity of the apps. By using Google Play to conduct their Fraud Scheme, Defendants have threatened the integrity of Google Play and the user experience," Google's lawsuit states.
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