Slashdot Mirror
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.
n/t
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
I'm puzzled by this. I'm puzzled by the assertion that there are phone apps which actually do something useful. I thought they were all just for hipsters are techno-freaks to show how cool they are by spending a few bucks on an app which makes a pretty colour or farting sounds.
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.
---
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.
I have several useless (or at least seemingly-useless) packages on my Debian system, too. Yet somehow that's not a news story.
I don't know why iOS users would want a tap-to-exit application program, but there's lots of weird things about that platform. Why call such junk a "scam?" If it fits Apple's guidelines and the users have already decided that what's good for Apple is good for them, then it can't be a scam. You only call it a scam because you're on the outside, one of the people who aren't sure that all of Apple's judgements are the correct ones. If you used that platform, you'd get it and take back the accusation.
"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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.