Maria Vaca invested nearly $5 million in a cryptocurrency trading app from the Google Play store between February and July 2023, believing she was outsmarting the market.

After attempting to withdraw her funds, Vaca discovered her money was missing, leading her lawyer, Chris Vernon, to file a lawsuit against Google.

The lawsuit contends that Google has a responsibility to prevent scam applications from being available on its platform.

The fraudulent apps reportedly prevented victims from withdrawing their funds, highlighting vulnerabilities in the Google Play store's security.

In April, Google filed a lawsuit against two developers for distributing 87 fraudulent crypto apps on the Play store that affected nearly 100,000 users.

Google has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court or to media inquiries, but has acknowledged the existence of scams on its platform.

Dr. Chengyi Qu, a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, states that while cryptocurrency itself is safe, the lack of oversight allows malicious actors to exploit users.

According to the FBI's Internet Crime Report, Americans lost nearly $4 billion to cryptocurrency investment fraud last year.

Vernon claims that Vaca lost her money to a crypto scam and argues that the significant amount of money lost to such scams needs to be addressed urgently.

Vernon's lawsuit emphasizes the need for greater protections for users to mitigate the risks associated with cryptocurrency transactions.