Slashdot Mirror
Fake Shopping Apps Are Invading the iPhone (nypost.com)
An anonymous reader shares a NYPost report: For tech-focused scammers, knocking off sneakers and handbags is so last decade. Thieves in the digital age are slamming consumers right in the app. A slew of knockoff shopping apps have quietly infiltrated Apple's App Store in recent months, looking to lure unsuspecting iPhone owners with bogus deals on everything from jewelry to designer duds. The fake apps mimic the look of legit apps -- and have proliferated since this summer, experts said. It didn't help that earlier this month, Apple introduced search ads in its App Store. The fake apps are buying search terms, it would appear, to increase their exposure to consumers. The crooks are looking to tap into the fast-growing market for mobile sales, which last year leaped 56 percent to $49.2 billion, according to comScore.Further reading on NYTimes (NYTimes has opened its paywall till November 9).
come up with a political parody app and you won't be able to have it on the App Store. Develop a phony shopping app and you're given the green light. This is what we call hypocrisy folks and why Walled Gardens aren't all they are promised to be.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
I thought the appeal of the "walled garden" was that garbage like this wasn't supposed to make it into the App Store...
"Hey this looks just like Amazon!"
"yes, but it says scAmazon"
"That's not fair! That sounds a lot like Amazon!"
"But the app doesn't look anything like Amazon"
"Yes but...."
"And Amazon never says 'get an iPod for only a Penny! Just give us your credit card!"
"I thought it was a Black Friday Sale!"
"Well, you're too stupid to work the internet then"
I thought the walled garden was supposed to prevent this kind of stuff.
I don't know about you, but if I was going to be running this kind of a scam I would do everything possible to make sure each of my counterfeit shopping apps had a unique identifier as far as Apple was concerned.
That way you couldn't easily get all your apps blacklisted.
What puzzles me is how easily so many got through. I wonder if part of the problem is that a fair number of luxury goods aren't sold direct to consumer, but through authorized resellers and I wonder if what the apps really look like is "price comparison" apps -- ie, some way of aggregating prices for luxury products and allowing people to purchase a specific good as if it was going through the actual merchant selling the products.
IE, to users or Apple the apps look like "Priceline" for some luxury good.
if Apple requires some authoritative identification behind each developer (phone #, validated proof of identity}
It's adorable that you think criminals intent on stealing your money would be bothered by the problem of forging one or more sets of false credentials.
Usually it's something like "Install our App to get X% off!". Legit sites do that all the time, if you purchase through their mobile app they'll give a discount.