Up to now, I've been in the "Apple *wants* to do the right thing" camp. My viewpoint is starting to change.
How to spot a $5M/year scam on the @AppStore, in 5 minutes flat:👇
How to spot a $5M/year scam on the @AppStore, in 5 minutes flat:👇
4.6 stars, with over 80,000 ratings, and a glowing 5-star "featured" review: 
Let's slide over to the next review in the carousel:
Hmm... maybe that was an outlier, let's check the next one:
Ok, this definitely warrants to keep scrolling:
Now I'm starting to see a patter here.
Last one:
Let's dig in with @appfigures and look at the breakdown of just the reviews. Only 835 of them. Their average stars?
1.6 stars
ONE. POINT. SIX.
1.6 stars
ONE. POINT. SIX.
In reviews, which I don't even have to filter, people are *desperately* trying to warn others not to make the same mistake they did:
⭐️DO NOT PURCHASE
"This app charges a ridiculous amount of money to use it ten dollars a week ******
Definitely not worth that much money it really should be illegal!!!!!!!!!!!!!************"
"This app charges a ridiculous amount of money to use it ten dollars a week ******
Definitely not worth that much money it really should be illegal!!!!!!!!!!!!!************"
⭐️PREDATORY COMPANY
"PREDATORY COMPANY - DO NOT DOWNLOAD - THEY WILL ROB YOU"
"PREDATORY COMPANY - DO NOT DOWNLOAD - THEY WILL ROB YOU"
⭐️Thieves Stay Away
"I downloaded this app and canceled my subscription within 5 minutes and guess what they charged me 9.99
Surprised Apple is providing platform to this thieves."
"I downloaded this app and canceled my subscription within 5 minutes and guess what they charged me 9.99
Surprised Apple is providing platform to this thieves."
⭐️Hard to believe these reviews are genuine
"I don’t write reviews, but this one warrant one. This one has all the signs of a scam. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt I am.
[...]
Apple should be worried since this app has over 70k of 5 star"
"I don’t write reviews, but this one warrant one. This one has all the signs of a scam. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt I am.
[...]
Apple should be worried since this app has over 70k of 5 star"
⭐️BAIT AND SWITCH
"This app requires a subscription to use at all. There’s no trial/test/preview, just enter your credit card details.
Just charge for the app, not this bait and switch.
Is apple reading this!? Terrible experience. Ffs"
"This app requires a subscription to use at all. There’s no trial/test/preview, just enter your credit card details.
Just charge for the app, not this bait and switch.
Is apple reading this!? Terrible experience. Ffs"
Let's look at their ratings over time. Blue line is new positive ratings per day. This is a completely unnatural pattern here, when overlaid with their download numbers.
The featured 5-star review is there because the scammers made sure to also mark it as "Helpful", alongside submitting all their fake ratings.
This scam has been operating from Indonesia for years, although "operating" is giving it too much credit. The app was last updated in 2019, so they are literally sitting and collecting the stolen money.
@Apple is doing *nothing*. I am furious.
@Apple is doing *nothing*. I am furious.
The scam: apps.apple.com/ca/app/star-ga…
Their website: textystories.com
Another image from their support website reads:
"Life is wonderful, let our games be part of it!"
My blood is boiling.
Honest developers are getting fooled by all sides.
"Life is wonderful, let our games be part of it!"
My blood is boiling.
Honest developers are getting fooled by all sides.
Apologies for not adding ALT text in some of the images. You can read the reviews from their App Store page.
When you download and open the app, you HAVE to start a $10/week subscription to proceed.
UNREAL
UNREAL
This is some utter BS
Discussion over at Hacker News: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=260446…
Discussion on Reddit: reddit.com/r/apple/commen…
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