Thread by @keleftheriou

Since Apple seems to be cool with this scam remaining on their App Store, let's look at another app from the *same* developer.

This one has stolen "only" $1M so far...

How?

1/🧵

https://twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1357938977748078594

Enter "Truth or Dare⋆". No, the little asterisk at the end is not a typo, just a shitty ASO dark pattern.

apps.apple.com/US/app/id13976…

Searching for "Truth of Dare", we see their ad at the top. Because the scam is so profitable, they can afford to pay a lot for that.

4.5 stars, 16K ratings, glowing featured reviews, how can I say no?

Launch the app, you get this:

Hmm, there doesn't even seem to be a way to skip this? Well, anyway, 16K ratings can't be wrong. This is gonna be so worth it.

Reader: it wasn't worth it

The app is one of the worst ad-infected scams, but maybe it's just my opinion.

@appfigures shows they have only 203 reviews, out of 16K ratings (!)

The average review rating?

1.9 stars

ONE. POINT. NINE.

Now let's see what people are actually *saying* in these reviews, to get a better understanding of what has been going on here - for YEARS.

Bear with me, I'll show you quite a few.

⭐️ Thieves!
No idea how this has such a great rating. Honestly believe they are fake. Crazy that many could be fake. Charged my account $5 a week for 10 months without me knowing.

⭐️ Criminals
TARGETED MY KIDS, one of whom bought it (my fault). Charges $5 every few days it seems. Already notified AG of my state and have filed a complaint. This app is a total scam.

⭐️ Zero stars SCAM SCAM SCAM
I downloaded this app 7 months ago. NEVER gave it permission to charge me $4.99 a week for the extreme version of whatever. Deleted the 7months ago and have been getting charged every week since.
SCAM SCAM SCAM.

⭐️ SCAM.
Wouldn’t even give them 1 star. Charged money and changed nothing. Still get pop ups, Crashes, questions are the same, nothing good to say. Will not give a refund even though I didn’t get what I paid for

⭐️ Can’t do anything
You literally can’t do anything if you don’t pay the ridiculous amount of money they want you to spend. Those 5 stars were probably from fake accounts that were made by the developers of the game.

⭐️ Disappointed
TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY DOLLARS A YEAR FOR TRUTH OR DARE. Just give me a little x in the top left, top right anywhere. Please. You are under investigation for killing my high, my vibe, and the whole night. You are a bunch of Suckas.

⭐️ Criminal waste of money
Don’t download this app. If you do, make sure you cancel the subscription IMMEDIATELY or else you’ll be bleeding cash out your a**ho** WEEKLY!! I’m all for paid apps, honestly, but these is a blatant money grab with no mercy.

⭐️ cant x out of subscription
i didn’t even get to start when it pops up with the extreme pack that i don’t want obv but there’s no where to click out of it. fix it please!

⭐️ Well something happen
It looked amazing but when I downloaded it, it said “extreme pack” and I didn’t want it but it had no “x” button, and I didn't get to play can you fix it plz and I might give you a 5 star

⭐️ Bad
Because I can’t find the x button for the free trail at the beginning

⭐️ TRASH
THIS GAME IS THE WORST I HAVE SEEN. There is no X button for the subscription so you can’t play the game. Don’t download this game.

⭐️ Trash.
My friends and I were looking for a good party game and I thought WOW! That looks amazing. I downloaded it and i couldn’t exit out of the buy extreme thing.

⭐️ Do NOT download
Sketch AF. There is NO option within the app to unsubscribe and the directions given are not accurate. Just a way to keep you locked in.

⭐️ Pay to Play
There is a paywall after onboarding with no way out of it except quitting the app. Cannot play unless you sign up for the premium free trial.

⭐️ Girl no
This game is horrible. It wouldn’t even let me pay unless I bought exTreMe.

⭐️ So irritating 😤
I am on my iPhone X to play when this subscription pops up I look all over the page but there is no x button so I can’t play so makers of this game pls fix it because I want to play

⭐️ Asked for a review immediately
There is not point in asking my enjoyment level with five seconds of me opening an app for the first time.
Also, there does not appear to be a way to play the free version.

⭐️ F#&k This game
The game is scam. It showed me how to play them Boom! The premium pack comes in and I can’t press on the x because there was no x.

⭐️ WHERE IS THE X
This game is literally FORCING YOU to buy it, when the ad pops up, usually there is an X BUT NO... IT IS NOWHERE. This game is absolutely trash and I would not recommend buying it.

⭐️ Message
How to cancel a subscription?

⭐️ Scam
Forces me to try the free trial for an upgraded game before I can even play the game in general. It says they give you 3 days to cancel, but I’m a pretty sure most people will forget. Looks like a scam to me .

⭐️ Scam
There is no free version, app forces you to accept a short trial period, after which you are ‘conveniently’ charged a weekly fee.

Regular users can see better than Apple how much of a scam this is, but they can't effectively warn anyone else because their rating vote gets drowned in the fake ratings.

And what is Apple doing here?

NOTHING.

Total BS.

If you're wondering how these scammers are getting fake ratings, just google "buy App Store ratings".

It will be an eye-opener.

Oh, and when was the app last updated?

2019.

The scammers are just collecting the money now, no work required.