Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Game Maker Says 40% of iTunes In-App Buys Are Fraud

Posted by Soulskill on from the most-of-the-remainder-are-probably-three-year-olds dept.

chicksdaddy writes "Hong Kong-based Lakoo, maker of the Empire Online game, says that 4 in 10 in-application purchases by users of the iOS version of its MMORPG are fraudulent, and made through compromised iTunes accounts. But Apple has turned a deaf ear to its requests for help to stop the bogus activity."

8 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. If this were a systemic Problem, by ClaraBow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd imagine that more developers would come forward and complain.

    1. Re:If this were a systemic Problem, by commodore6502 · · Score: 3, Informative

      It likely IS a problem but Apple..... like Paypal..... chooses to ignore the abusive, illegal payments. Paypal eventually ended-up before the US DOJ and forced to refund money back to various persons (I got $75). Perhaps the same will happen with Apple in a few years.

      --
      Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
    2. Re:If this were a systemic Problem, by VGPowerlord · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...and I realized after the fact that this article is about in-game purchases and fraudulent credit cards, not fraudulent programs. Whoops.

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
    3. Re:If this were a systemic Problem, by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It likely IS a problem but Apple..... like Paypal..... chooses to ignore the abusive, illegal payments.

      What incentive do they have to protect their customers? This isn't the 1970s any more.

      Understand, it's not personal, it's just that the corporations have declared war on us. They're just doing what they were designed to do: profit no matter who gets hurt. Yet you still hear people say that there's "too much regulation". "Too much government". When corporations are the ones funding election campaigns, what do you expect lawmakers to do but whatever the donors say.

      The corporation is a person that doesn't pay tax like a person.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Re:This ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't trust the developers with direct access to my account.

    We just released an app with in-app purchase. You'll be happy to know that we (developers) don't have direct access to your account. Apple handles all the authentication and transaction, and all we (developers) get is a digital receipt of the transaction.

  3. Wrong, hope you aren't spreading panic. by saboosh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Developers do not have access to your visa, regardless of how you pay for content in iOS. All iOS purchases, whether they be appstore or in-app, are payed to Apple, period, end of story. Apple, then, takes care of distributing the payment. Apple mediates everything. The developer is cut a check from Apple after they take a cut, even for in-app purchases.

  4. As a developer using in app purchase ... by perpenso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good luck with your app, but for a lot of us, in-app purchases is a sign that maybe I really don't want your app very much to begin with.

    As a developer using in app purchase I am honestly interested in what you would suggest.

    I offer a technical product rather than a game. A single app that combines the functionality of various traditional handheld calculators, scientific, statistics, business, hex, etc. Perpenso Calc. Rather than have a single high priced app that probably included functionality a particular user would not care about I decided to have a modestly priced app that offered basic built-in functionality -- scientific, rpn, fractions, complex numbers, ... -- but was expandable using in app purchases. This allowed a person to pick and pay for only the additional functionality -- statistics, business and hex -- that they cared for. I suppose another option would have been to offer several medium priced apps, one each for statistics, business or hex but what if a person was interest in more than one? They would need multiple apps, that would be more costly. Also more inconvenient if they needed to move data from one calculator to the other.

    In your opinion am I missing something? What alternatives would you suggest? Thanks in advance. Seriously, I am curious.

  5. Re:Motivation? by increment1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The motive is financial.

    Steps:
    1. Compromise account.
    2. Buy in game goods with compromised account's Visa, gift cards, or (perhaps) fraudulently generated gift cards.
    3. Sell in game goods for real currency.

    The reason this particular developer is getting hit the hardest is probably because their game is the current best way to realize profits from a compromised account. For many other apps with in app purchases, it is probably difficult to convert your purchase back into money.