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Fraudulent Apps Found In Apple's Store
snydeq writes Angry support queries citing problems with mystery iOS apps has led InfoWorld's Simon Phipps to discover the existence of several scamware apps in Apple's App Store. "If you're a scammer looking to make a fast buck, it appears that [Apple's App Store] process can be defeated," Phipps reports. "The questions originated from a support link for a $2.99 app in Apple's iTunes Store," which pointed angry customers to the Apache OpenOffice community, which doesn't even have an iOS app. The app in question, Quickoffice Pro, "simply displays a gray screen with the word Tap. When you tap the screen, the app exits." Further investigation has uncovered two other scam apps thus far.
You're tapping it wrong.
Leave Apple alone!
no surprise there. i'm sure this isn't the first time scams have been found in apple's app store.
Wasn't stuff like this supposed to be prevented by having a walled garden?
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
2 lameware apps out of 1.2 million apps? I'm guessing people will get over it.
This is where Apple can provide value to their customers by managing the ecosystem.
They should be more than capable of issuing refunds to anyone who was scammed, remotely nuking the app, and punishing the publisher in an appropriate manner.
If they do all of those things, it justifies some of their policies, at least for mainstream users.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
It's news because most lameware apps don't pretend to be something they're not. They're up-front about being lame.
"A developer that we hired as a freelance third party vendor published this app under my personal Apple developer account without permission or my knowledge. I take app fraud very seriously and will have the app removed as soon as possible."
Surely he would have noticed sales from this app appearing in his account. So where does the money go ?
I smell something bovine.
Probably something to so with the fact it's called "QuickOffice Pro", which is a legit Office application and therefore they are charging 2.99 to unsuspecting public.
They obviously aren't intentionally buying an app called " tap to exit pro" at 2.99 and then calling it a scam.
How does an app with no functionality get through the approval process to start with? This isn't a case of the app having a secret feature of calling home or installing malware. I mean, if it doesn't do anything how could anyone have reviewed the app to begin with?
...and if so, it's cheap at just $2.99. Heck, how many times have you paid more than that to go through an art gallery, only to find the inevitable "Painting with Single Dot in the Middle"? Better yet, this art is both multimedia and interactive.
Wasn't stuff like this supposed to be prevented by having a walled garden?
Dude, people have also breached the walls, so to speak, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, A.K.A. the WHITE HOUSE.
Calm down, they'll take care of it. If security in the iOS App Store were perfect, that would be quite a feat. Being tighter than the security at the WHITE HOUSE ought to make most people happy.
It's like you wouldn't be impressed with what Bishop did with that knife in Aliens because he managed to knick his finger doing something he apparently does quite a bit and normally DOESN'T MISS. Misses so infrequently that it drew the comment from one of the Space Marines, "I thought you never missed, Bishop!"
As I understand it, a week with a revealed breach in iOS App Store security, (etc., ) is like a week WITHOUT one in Android land. Pretty rare, and noteworthy. Hence why you were able to read this story. It's a rare enough event that it made the news.
Didn't Google remove Quickoffice in favor of Google Docs already?
At least do some research first before paying the 99$ developer fee to be able to upload apps in the first place.
Then again, it was released around the time Google was deciding to shut down the app.
App Details
It opens, you tap it, and it closes. You can't get much quicker than that. What's the issue?
XDInd
Quickoffice Pro is a useful program i've been using since I purchased an iPhone 3G. It recently had a bad update that broke it, a mistake on the publisher's part no doubt, but not a scam. Honestly this article reads way to joyously consists of way too little research on the subject.
It's like some people want IOS to suck in the same ways Android does; sorry folks! It sucks in it's own ways.
Ummm... What? The QuickOffice team doesn't make an iPhone app. I think you are confused about names and thinking of a different app. There has never been a functional "QuickOffice Pro" app for iPhone. Anything with such a name is a scam and not real.
Right. We're all so mentally deficient and obscenely wealthy that we readily purchase and install every app onto our infinite-storage-capacity devices because it came from The Cloud and clouds are fluffy like LOL cats. We're also better than you and believe Jobs will rise again and smite all you nonbelievers and we'll all LOL over iMessage.
You are missing the critical "Office" part and also that it's copied the name from googles QuickOffice Pro and is why people are buying it best on that name.
People are dumb enough that they can't spot these apps? Gee, I found a lot of legitimate apps that were crap on both Apple and Google's app stores. Most people generally weed out the good with the bad. I really only have about 10 apps that I find useful and they come from legitimate businesses. We all know their are crappy scumbags everywhere especially on the internet.
Phone apps I actually use:
Alarm Clock
Countdown Timer
Stop Watch
Calculator
eBook reader
email reader
text messaging app
Music player
Video player
Calendar
Photo viewer
Offline Map-based GPS
Microphone/annotation device
Reminder/To-Do app
Address Book
Input device for computer
Remote Access/monitoring software for computers
Weather app
Camera
Offline Reference apps (health/meds/astronomy/formulas/conversions/knots/words)
Collaborative doodle apps
Music composition/performance apps
That's what I actually use on a regular basis. Interestingly, a large portion of those are provided by default.
Another one that I always intend to use but never actually find useful is a range finder app that lets you calculate distance/height of objects.
As the versions of iOS increase, many of the apps that I purchased don't even work anymore and are still on the app store.
Perhaps the developer just forgot about them, or couldn't be bothered spending the time or money to update them to more current iOS versions.
It seems that there are a lot of abandoned apps out there.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
I am capable of starting a multi-million dollar business. I have not and, therefore, do not deserve credit for having done so.
I have and have used QuickOffice Pro which *was* a valid app. Reading the article I didn't even know QuickOffice Pro had been bought out by Google and retired.
So, useful information from my perspective.
I had not used it recently since I do not usually use typical "office" type apps on an iPad - mostly use it for professional music production instead, and the only reason I had it on there was to make edits to a spreadsheet that contained DAW track lists and assignments, but I can also access those another way, so I hadn't fired it up since installing it on a newer iPad.
I have just checked and the same problem exists with the Android version of the app. so it's not specific to Apple or the iPad store.
The joke.
Your Head.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Apps I use that perhaps aren't quite so common
guitar tuner
audio signal generator
network scan and ping
RDP and VNC client
Apps kids at the autism spectrum school I volunteer at use:
Text to speech for non-verbal kids
Pictographs to speech for non-verbal/non-literate kids
Both of the above types of kid have sometimes surprisingly able brains hidden by specific deficits in forming speech.
Lots of educational programs that seem truly useful
Having just a few days ago helped my friend with his iphone 6, I have to say that I am totally unimpressed with it. It is the lamest excuse for a smartphone that I have ever seen. He could have bought at least three (much better quality) Android phones for what he paid for the iphone. I guess what I have heard is true: The i in iphone stands for idiot!
What these app stores need is a whitelist or 'canon' of the more popular, useful and reputable apps.
For example, Whatsapp.
Make the club small and exclusive, so the common folks don't get in.
Let me reiterate...this article is a troll. You can go the iTunes app, and ask for your money back in the first 14 days, if memory does not fail me, and Apple will give it back, no questions asked. I lost count of the Apps I returned. As far as I remember your payments to the author of the app are only transferred after 30 days, or something like that.
Probably something to so with the fact it's called "QuickOffice Pro", which is a legit Office application and therefore they are charging 2.99 to unsuspecting public.
They obviously aren't intentionally buying an app called " tap to exit pro" at 2.99 and then calling it a scam.
Actually, it was that legit software, and it still was until Google bought it and then after dumping it for Docs, Sheets, and Slides replaced it with the scamware update.