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A top-grossing scam on the App Store

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Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#141

Post by quickthrower2 »

planb wrote: post #75
simonw wrote: post #60

I got scammed on the App Store a couple of weeks ago. I needed the SmartThings app for some Samsung home automation devices, searched for it, and installed this one: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/smart-things-smart-view-app/id... When it charged me a $20/year subscription (now cancelled) I thought "Wow, Samsung charging me for this feels pretty cheap of them, but I guess that's how they do things - after all, I found…

Apart from the subscription scam, I don't see a problem here. Just imagine the comments here if Apple had rejected a legit app just because it has "Smart Things" in the name.

So an App Store full of real apps and 5 fake apps trying to gouge you per real app (some using ads so they are the first result). Sounds like a great future. Do extensive research before installing anything.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#142

Post by Invictus0 »

socialist_coder wrote: post #52

The scam really is about the iOS Subscriptions and how its easy to have a free trial then auto-bill you for some absurd amount. Very easy to trick people into doing this. Apple should just remove Subscriptions completely and have app developers turn them into consumable IAPs that you have to buy every X months. The app developer can still do a free trial in their own code. Games do this all the time with "premium". Y…

Or better, force the app to let the user dictate how many months they want to authorize the subscription for.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#143

Post by asdff »

cronix wrote: post #35
phreack wrote: post #5

So it's not just a scam, it's a scam pretending to be a medical app? The walled garden method has been proven a failure and needs to go urgently.

I often wonder what it would be like if the iPhone followed Steve Jobs original announcement and stated vision. There was no mention of an app store, at all. Apps were to be, basically, PWA's using html and javascript with api's to hardware. They called it "web 2.0 + ajax" and claimed if you knew how to write apps using the "latest web standards," you could write apps just as good as apples native apps. If you wanted…

I think their hand was forced when the first iPhone was jailbroken, and able to install 3rd party apps within six months of release.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#144

Post by josefresco »

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #39

Remember, the App Store offers you the most secure, curated, and safe experience you can ever have with your Apple devices. Each app submitted to the App Store undergoes a thorough review process. Each app update is checked and approved by an Apple employee. It's not like some automated process which you can game left and right. Each app on the App Store is guaranteed, thanks to the strict review process, to adhere t…

Is this a joke?

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#145

Post by whywhywhywhy »

tolmasky wrote: post #54

Apple has just engineered the worst possible situation for themselves by being the only way to get apps on the store and by simultaneously incessantly marketing the store as "Safe and Secure". The former encourages them to maximize the number of apps on the store, while the latter encourages them to shoot first and ask questions later. If side-loading or alternative ways of getting apps onto the iPhone existed, then…

>Apple has just engineered the worst possible situation for themselves

Until you realize they don't actually care about it being "safe and secure" beyond a certain point.

They care they apps wont leech your payment details, they care they apps can't step outside the guidelines, they care that technology and connectivity is locked within the app store and not the browser but as long as an app plays within the rules they don't care if an app tricks your 5 year old into a 400$ a week subscription, as long as your 5 year old is doing it safely.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#146

Post by asdff »

smolder wrote: post #125
easton wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would launder money in a way that would not only require finding a developer and going through App Review, but also losing 30% in the process (plus however much that developer costs)?

I think for someone who needd to launder large amounts of money and can't spend it otherwise, 30% or more might not be unreasonable. 70% beats 0%.

There are far simpler and less convoluted ways to launder money. We have bitcoin. We have HSBC.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#147

Post by Apocryphon »

ehsankia wrote: post #135
fsflover wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> without any evidence Do GNU/Linux repositories count? F-Droid?

F-Droid is orders of magnitude smaller, and its users are generally far more advanced, hence not worth trying to scam. The same applies to GNU/Linux too, though there's also other differences there too. Scale is really the issue, Android has 3 billion users, iOS probably has over a billion too.

Looking at the Android model, despite its greater openness than iOS, there is also only one dominant app market with a handful of third part competitors, from well-curated open source repos like F-Droid or XDA Labs to OEM third party ones that no one actually uses or wants to use like the Amazon Appstore or Samsung AppStack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Android_app_stores

Really hard to say what would happen in a hypothetical situation where Apple allowed iOS alternative app stores. Maybe the overwhelming majority of users will continue to download only on the App Store, with a tiny minority of power users going to alternatives.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#148

Post by iamleppert »

The App Store quality is so low now that I avoid it completely. It reminds me of a dollar store just browsing through it. All the developers, like sellers of products at a dollar store, have learned to optimize for “the packaging” of the app.

The goal isn’t to get some meaningful money per customer but to make a single sale, usually only a few dollars. So the goal is to trick the user, optimize for large volumes of unit sales and reduce the cost per sale to as minimal as possible.

I think it’s time that there be competing App Stores on iOS because Apple has completely dropped the ball with their brain-dead approach to quality and developer incentives. Whoever runs the App Store at Apple should be replaced, but that’s not going to happen until there is real competition so the numbers reflect the true state of things.

Getting someone to part with $20 is harder than $1. I think the race to the bottom with software distribution has had a negative effect on overall quality. I’d rather have a few moderately priced options to choose from than 100 equally cheap options.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#150

Post by coldtea »

pranau wrote: post #129
coldtea wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If side-loading or alternative ways of getting apps onto the iPhone existed, then they could implement far stricter controls knowing that, worst case scenario, you can still get an app onto the iPhone. This is how it works on the Mac. Tor isn't on the Mac App Store, but that of course doesn't mean Tor can't be used on the Mac. And if side-loading was alowed then every big player whose app users "have to have", e.g.…

>And if side-loading was alowed then every big player whose app users "have to have", e.g. Google, Facebook, Abobe, Zoom, Epic, would start their own independent app store (or distribution just for their apps). >Users would have no recourse than to install the app for there (or do without Facebook or Zoom etc). We are already aware of a platform that allows easy sideloading - Android. And most apps on Android are dis…

>When there is no such thing as the examples you described going on in Android, why do you expect iOS to be different?

Several reasons why this hasn't happened on Android. Let's see a few examples:

(1) iOS doesn't let other players have their own broswer engines. Google is one of those other players, and if the iOS App Store wasn't the only game in town, they'd have an alternative pronto. Android is theirs, so they don't need to do that.

(2) iOS has strict privacy/ad rules (getting stricter too). Facebook doesn't like them. Android let's them have it - so no need to make a move there.

(3) iOS also has the share cut that Epic doesn't like regarding the in-store subscriptions thing. In Android, where this is also an issue, Epic already has users sideload Forthnite from their own store.

(4) Serious Adobe apps are not available for Android (just Photoshop Express/Mix and such lite versions for consumers), but are for iOS. So not exactly the same incentive for Above to make a move there. But if it was an option to have their own store on iOS, given their pro app subscription program, I think they'd take it pronto.

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