Clicking on the the red “Learn more” button takes us to google.com. Maybe an honest mistake.
Let’s take a closer look at who these really photogenic people are…
There’s only one co-founder, Robby Lee - maybe the other(s) left? Anyway, searching for their names doesn’t turn up anything relevant.
What about a reverse image search?
Yup. They’re using stock photos, since scammers rarely use their real identity to do their “business”:
What about the two apps they showcase? One’s just a design from Dribbble, the other from Behance - but has been blurred to hide the “Lorem ipsum” placeholder text it actually has:
Now let’s go back and take a closer look at the reviews. It seems that the developer is running deceptive ads. People are warning others, many don’t know how to cancel their subscription or get a refund, and some even wonder: why is Apple ignoring their reports?
So how on earth does this app have a 4.1 rating?
Take a look at these streams of glowing 5-star reviews, many appearing on the exact same day.
Notice how they all have roughly the same length, and non-sensical author names - all with the same “First Last” name format:
While Apple practices their security theater, scammers simply buy fake App Store ratings & reviews left and right. It’s really easy!
“Apple can’t be perfect”, I hear you say. “There are over 2M apps on the App Store!”
Well, with over 1M downloads and $1.4M revenue so far, this app has become the #335 highest grossing app across the *entire* App Store, with a $5M/year rate.
This is only one of many multi-million dollar App Store scams that sometimes run unchecked for *years*. Apple doesn’t even bother scrutinizing the top grossing apps for the security of their own customers.
They even go out of their way to make it *harder* to spot these scams: They literally removed the “Report a problem” button they used to have on each app’s App Store page!
“The answer turns out to be as simple as it is depressing: Apple's App Store was never designed to work. At least not in the way the company purports that it does.”
Solving the fake ratings issue would solve all of the various problems @_inside and @johnsundell mention here, other than the *really* good counterfeits.
If the ratings are 4.6 stars but all reviews together are 1.6 stars, you don't need any advanced AI to detect.
True ratings would deprive all these scams from their oxygen, and would allow people to come together and protect themselves without relying on a potentially biased decision from any single Apple reviewer.
The App Store has a *massive* fake ratings problem👇
You: an honest developer, working hard for a 4.5 star rating.
Your competitor: a $12M App Store scam, undetected for years.
1/🧵
This app was released early 2016.
With a 4.5 rating from over 150k users, and a price of free, it definitely seems worth downloading:
Upon first launch, we’re presented with what amounts to a $260/year auto-renewing subscription. I didn’t notice the X button located all the way up there, so I’m gonna assume there’s only one way to proceed here - all those users can’t be wrong, and it’s a free trial after all!