There is no way that Apple is not aware of the revenue analytics that would indicate these apps as financial outliers and not aware that these apps are scams.
Given the frequency with which we hear of legitimate apps being removed or rejected by Apple, one can't even argue that Apple is just not paying enough attention.
I don't say this often, but someone at Apple should be fired over this. This devalues the App Store in the long run, because it will teach Apple users not to trust their only source for apps; and that will lead them away from Apple products.
It's interesting that you say "this devalues the App Store in the long run." Because since there's no way to use an alternate app store on iOS products, Apple would only be at risk if the idea that "iOS apps are scammy" starts to enter the mainstream zeitgeist and change deeply-ingrained product choice decisions. Before that happens, the story would be picked up by mainstream media, not just a Medium blog. And at that point, Apple could hire the anti-scam team they should have hired in the first place, fire nobody, issue a veiled apology, and move forwards. Some will gripe, but Apple will almost certainly escape unscathed from a public-trust perspective. It's entirely rational - saddeningly so - for them to be reactive rather than proactive to these types of apps.
The correct response is to publicize these types of findings, have journalists and lawmakers demand accountability, and accelerate the transition towards voluntary self-regulation. Tech needs its muckrakers [0] just like any other industry, and we shouldn't expect companies to change without them.
His 4th point about cancelling subscriptions is pretty solid I wish all app stores would add that prompt. Most people dont know how to cancel app subscriptions cause they are hidden magic. They likely think having the app installed ensures the app charges money.
What's scary is the prompt doesn't emphasize the amount of money to be spend enough. I think if you're going to subscribe to anything, it shouldn't be such a simple dialog, you should be forced to look through some sort of clear page that separates the micro-legal jargon and shows you the cost in big bold letters.
This seems like a horrible way to do both of those things... very easy to track, and you don't think Apple/investigators will notice if a lot of stolen cards are buying the same app?
>This seems like a horrible way to do both of those things... very easy to track, and you don't think Apple/investigators will notice if a lot of stolen cards are buying the same app?
Doesn't matter if the cash has already been funneled overseas. Good luck extraditing someone on credit card fraud from Cambodia.
The credit card thieves set up icloud accounts using the stolen card numbers. They make purchases of their own fake apps. The real credit card owner doesn't report the fraud to Apple App Store, but to Visa. Visa issues a chargeback.
Apple iCloud fraud team doesn't communicate sufficiently or at all with Apple App Store fraud team, because the losses are seen as chump change or due to organizational friction. App gains traction in App Store due to high revenues and low complaints.
Eventually someone not-tech-savvy will download it and complain. Then, maybe, it will get taken down. Or if someone writes a popular blog post about it.
The point isn't about the fraud or the possible laundering. The point is that Apple _must_ have some people doing data analytics on app sales and numerous other app store metrics, and therefore they should have already investigated these outliers.
And even before these apps became "successful", they should have gone through some review process. Clearly they were not reviewed at all.
May not be intentional in this case, but 419 scammers typically go for these "obvious" red flags as they work as sort of gates to block the less gullible people from getting further into the process as they don't convert.
> They’re taking advantage of the fact that there’s no filtering or approval process for ads, and that ads look almost indistinguishable from real results, and some ads take up the entire search result’s first page.
How is not Apple legally responsible for this? Apple tricks its own users to click on ads, but it doesn't take any responsability on its content. I guess that it is, but nobody is suing them and goverments have been historically soft with IT companies.
Automation and the rule of law are mutually exclusive. Or you have inmense scalable systems without human intervention or you have systems that follow local laws and ethics. And this will not change until AI has human-level understanding and intelligence.
I'd be curious to learn how much of that $80k/mo was returned by Apple to consumers (and not actually paid out to the developer). It's hard to imagine such a scheme would last long on the top grossing page without intervention...
The spectrum is just insane for this company. I’ve had pushback and app rejections for the most ridiculous things; meanwhile, I’m never more than 1-2 searches away from finding what I would call an “obvious scam”. (If their search engine wasn’t garbage, I’m sure I’d find more.)
The scammers make hundreds of dollars for every misclick. Meanwhile, did you know that if you don’t make enough money you effectively grant Apple an interest-free loan and they can wait weeks or months to finally pay you when you reach the threshold?
Whatever Apple claims to gain by making itself gatekeeper, it’s clear they fail pretty often at quality control. Meanwhile, real developers get angrier and angrier.
Given the frequency with which we hear of legitimate apps being removed or rejected by Apple, one can't even argue that Apple is just not paying enough attention.
I don't say this often, but someone at Apple should be fired over this. This devalues the App Store in the long run, because it will teach Apple users not to trust their only source for apps; and that will lead them away from Apple products.