Thread by @keleftheriou

WARNING: Another top-grossing VPN scam is on the @AppStore

Stay clear! 🚨

How to spot this $5M/year scam in 5 minutes flat: 👇

The app’s screenshots are pretty standard, while the description is riddled with typos - and almost feels like it’s *trying* to be a big unreadable wall of text:

The app has 4 stars with hundreds of ratings, and the featured review by “Corianna Patience” is totally singing its praises:

Sliding over to the next review, an overly thrilled “Yoshiaki Lodwick” is also giving it 5 stars. Who could have thought people would be so excited about a VPN app?

The next review is a total oddity. “GIVES YOU VIRUSES” says the title, but it’s rated 5-stars “so people could see how bad it was”. Some alarm bells are starting to go off.

In the app, the first screen is their “Private” policy. Oddly, tapping the only available “Accept” button asks us if we are sure about this. With such great ratings, let’s see where that takes us.

Another typo in the title, but this time it’s not even a title - it’s PLACEHOLDER TEXT!

How the heck does this app have a 4-star rating? Or passed review twice??

Anyway, let’s continue to see what this “7 day” trial is all about.

On the next screen the trial is now for 3 days instead of 7, and we can “Incredibly increase speed” for a mere $12/week.

You’re telling me people are signing up for $624/year for *this*? And are giving it 4 stars?

Wait a minute! ✋

Let’s take a closer look at the reviews:

It seems the developer is running ads that trick users into thinking they have a virus.

People are trying to warn others.

“Hopefully Apple can take this app down before many people fall for this trick”, says one review from last year.

So how on earth does this app have a 4-star 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:

Even users can see through these totally fake reviews, yet Apple can’t - or won’t:

Keep in mind this is a *VPN* app - where security is paramount.

As part of their ongoing legal battle with Epic, Apple recently told the court: “Apple conducts a robust app review before apps are published.”

🤥

While Apple practices their security theater, scammers simply buy fake App Store ratings & reviews left and right.

It’s really easy!

This page will be an eye-opener for most people:

quora.com/What-are-the-b…

“Apple can’t be perfect”, I hear you say. “There are over 2M apps on the App Store!”

Well, with over $1.4M revenue so far, this app has become the #350 highest grossing app across the *entire* App Store, with a $5M/year run rate.

Data from @Appfigures:

To give you an idea, that’s more recurring revenue than apps like:

- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Google Drive
- Washington Post
- Fox News
- Reddit
- Bloomberg
- NBC Sports
- Grand Theft Auto
- NBA LIVE
- Monopoly
- DocuSign
- Udemy
- LastPass
- GoPro

- Facetune
- MasterClass
- Procreate Pocket
- Motionleap, Lightleap, Photoleap
- Evernote

…and many, many more.

In fact, this scam makes more money than almost every other app out of 2 million App Store apps!

It gets worse. This developer is a repeat offender inside Apple’s “walled garden”.

They had *another* VPN scam that netted them over half a MILLION dollars before it was shutdown early 2020.

But now knowing Apple’s lack of punishment they’re even more brazen & more profitable.

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:

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

And it’s not just that they don’t bother.

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!

https://twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1381002562782908417

So why does Apple allow this to happen?

“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.”

world.hey.com/dhh/the-app-st…

The scam: apps.apple.com/us/app/id15203…

Follow me for more, and keep sending me scams at [e-mail]

See you next time! ✌️

Join the discussion on Hacker News: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=268090…

And *another* top-grossing VPN scam from last week:

https://twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1379682377304211457?s=20

Another top-grossing scam from a few days ago:

https://twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1381463196280610816