Apple is having a wonderful year, but it just got worse when a new serious warning has been issued for each and every iPad and iPhone user.
In a series of tweets (via MacRumors), developer Kosta Elefherious revealed a shocking flaw in Apple’s App Store that allows criminals to defraud the owners of a million-dollar iPad and iPhone using Apple’s built-in purchasing system. In addition, Apple is benefiting from those apps.
In his tweets, Elefherious highlights the example of “Privacy Assistant: StringVPN” which, according to MacRumors, was ranked 32nd today in the App Store Utilities category. Reviews and many genuine users who leave reviews to warn others that it is a scam, Elefherious says the app earns more than $1 million a month, of which Apple is taking a break.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In reaction to Elefherious, another user shows that he reported a scam app called “TOR Browser Evil Onion” to Apple “over a month ago” and again, despite a lot of false reviews and warnings from users, he tries to extort money, stay alive. As Elefherious commented: “Wake up @Apple”
It’s getting worse. In February, Elefherious warned that he had discovered clones of his own app, FlickType (an Apple Watch keyboard), which tricked users with subscriptions of up to $8/week for non-functional apps. He even wrote a thread at the time ‘How to detect a $five million/year scam in @AppStore, in five minutes’ and pointed out the ‘Star Gazer’ app as a transparent example of that. Despite many warnings in the segment of warnings indicating that Star Gazer is a scam, two months in the app are also online.
How do those fraudulent apps bypass apple’s App Store algorithms?According to Eleftheriou, it’s not paper: copy a successful app and pay lots of fake five-star reviews, that’s all. Eleftheriou even says enough fake five-star reviews can win those “Apple-recommended” apps in Safari.
If there is a ray of hope, it is that the battle of Elefherious is to locate allies. Ruby on Rails and Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson retwuted Elefherious’ warning today, writing, “Kosta continues to locate these shameful scams in Apple’s App Store. paints on Apple’s billing platform. Therefore, it’s transparent that it’s not enough for Apple to make sure everything is safe. Almost like it’s just a talking point and not a point of action!»
For Apple, this will now have to be an action point. Corporate markets relied heavily on their commitment to user protection and began selling the app store expired last year under the slogan “Apps You Love”. From a position you can trust. “
I’ve contacted Apple and I’ll update this if I get a response.
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I am a freelance journalist with experience in the field of technology. I have written for Wired, The Next Web, TrustedReviews, The Guardian and the BBC, as well as Forbes.