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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.

8 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Walled Garden = Stewardship by EndlessNameless · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  2. Re:This is news.... because? by amber_of_luxor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The issue is that Apple claims that each app is vetted for potential security issues. By most definitions of the term, "fraud" falls under the category "security issue". Consequently, the discovery of even one fraud app means that Apple is not vetting apps in a manner consistent with what they claim.

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    Wind Beneath Thy Wings
  3. Re:For the Love of Cock! by seoras · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's getting boring here on Slashdot, this shift from Microsoft bashing to Apple bashing.
    The article's making it to front page are becoming very one sided, pro-Google/Android and anti-Apple.

    Only several out of a million+ Apps?
    So a few wild animals jump over into the walled garden, easy enough to chase them out and plug that hole.

  4. Schadenfreude much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re: By definition, not a scam by xaotikdesigns · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It opens, you tap it, and it closes. You can't get much quicker than that. What's the issue?

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    XDInd
  6. Re:Security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nobody of any intellectual merit uses iDevices

    That's the dumbest fucking thing I've read today.

  7. Re:This is news.... because? by Cabriel · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What? So an accuracy rate of 99.99992% isn't good enough? I suppose we can trust Google to top that.

  8. Re:For the Love of Cock! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Pretty much. /. died after taco left.