Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 261 posts

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#31

Post by defaultname »

rawtxapp wrote: post #9
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have sympathy for the person in this story, but I think shifting the blame to Apple in this case is ludicrous. I'm still somewhat shaking my head that someone went through all of the trouble of using a hardware wallet, and then entered his key words into the first app he downloaded. If anything I think this story is just a prime example of why irreversible crypto transactions are an absolute nightmare for the gener…

They might have think twice if Apple didn't promise to make sure the app store was completely secure. A promise which they realistically can't keep at their scale no matter how hard they try. Also, this is just one example, the article itself has other ones.

When has Apple made that promise? Where do they make that promise?

No system is perfect, and when you get the realm of people submitting privileged information to third parties, all bets are always off. There is absolutely no way Apple could make guarantees about that. And they don't. Anywhere.

And no, saying that they review apps isn't a promise that it is "completely secure". That is absurd.

Trying for some security and confidence is a world removed from absolute security. The latter is effectively impossible.

This thread is farce. Anything if it gives people an opportunity to ply their rhetoric. It is a reminder that while HN has some good discussions, it has a lot of people who just want to make stupid arguments based on lies.

"But I thought you said TLS was completely secure? How could someripoffsite.com steal my cash?"

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#32

Post by smoldesu »

dkarras wrote: post #24

The article's premise does not make sense. This stuff happens despite the tight control, not because of it. If it was uncurated, it would be a cesspool like the Google play store (or ...shudder... the "competing" stores). Having a paid app that reads QR codes is not necessarily a scam. The article admits that 2/3 of the apps they reported were taken down. The article claims: "If consumers were to have access to alter…

> Apple model is broken, but it is the least broken out there.

This would almost be true if users weren't forced to use the App Store to install native apps in the first place. If I had a choice to use a store like F-Droid on my iPhone, I wouldn't be complaining. However, being forced to use a broken system is still a complaint, even if it's marginally more secure than it's competitors.

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#34

Post by amaBasics »

Apple themselves seem to be intentionally breaking the App Store at times. From the article:

> Apple used to have a button [1], just under the ratings and reviews section in the App Store, that said “report a problem,” which allowed users to report inappropriate apps. Based on discussions among Apple customers on Apple’s own website [2], the feature was removed some time around 2016.

Why would they remove the ability for people to easily report apps?

1: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.dummies.com...

2: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6999097#:~:text=Apple%2...

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#35

Post by Griffinsauce »

dkarras wrote: post #24

The article's premise does not make sense. This stuff happens despite the tight control, not because of it. If it was uncurated, it would be a cesspool like the Google play store (or ...shudder... the "competing" stores). Having a paid app that reads QR codes is not necessarily a scam. The article admits that 2/3 of the apps they reported were taken down. The article claims: "If consumers were to have access to alter…

> Play store apps, unless proven otherwise, are generally malware you carry with yourself every day, with potential access to everything in your device because the OS is nowhere near locked down compared to Apple counterpart.

I'm sorry but this is complete bullshit. Your data on Android appears to be about a decade old.

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#36

Post by smoldesu »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6
rawtxapp wrote: post #2

The worst thing is, people have this belief that Apple is somehow protecting them, so they offload the critical thinking to Apple and lower their own guards. For example, a person thought he was getting a legitimate Bitcoin wallet app, but turns out it was a fake and he lost his life savings [1]. edit: to be clear, I'm not blaming Apple for not stopping these scams, at their scale, it's just practically impossible to…

I have sympathy for the person in this story, but I think shifting the blame to Apple in this case is ludicrous. I'm still somewhat shaking my head that someone went through all of the trouble of using a hardware wallet, and then entered his key words into the first app he downloaded. If anything I think this story is just a prime example of why irreversible crypto transactions are an absolute nightmare for the gener…

Shifting the blame to the world's largest, highest-value company is "ludicrous"? I must not keep up with the news.

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#37

Post by katbyte »

smoldesu wrote: post #32
dkarras wrote: post #24

The article's premise does not make sense. This stuff happens despite the tight control, not because of it. If it was uncurated, it would be a cesspool like the Google play store (or ...shudder... the "competing" stores). Having a paid app that reads QR codes is not necessarily a scam. The article admits that 2/3 of the apps they reported were taken down. The article claims: "If consumers were to have access to alter…

> Apple model is broken, but it is the least broken out there. This would almost be true if users weren't forced to use the App Store to install native apps in the first place. If I had a choice to use a store like F-Droid on my iPhone, I wouldn't be complaining. However, being forced to use a broken system is still a complaint, even if it's marginally more secure than it's competitors.

Then go use android? apple isn't the only phone & store combo out there and allowing 2rd party app stores takes away a lot of the value prop - there is a reason i like having the non tech literate and susceptible to scams in my life use iphones. its not perfect but it's sure better than the play store.

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#38

Post by smoldesu »

defaultname wrote: post #31
rawtxapp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might have think twice if Apple didn't promise to make sure the app store was completely secure. A promise which they realistically can't keep at their scale no matter how hard they try. Also, this is just one example, the article itself has other ones.

When has Apple made that promise? Where do they make that promise? No system is perfect, and when you get the realm of people submitting privileged information to third parties, all bets are always off. There is absolutely no way Apple could make guarantees about that. And they don't. Anywhere. And no, saying that they review apps isn't a promise that it is "completely secure". That is absurd. Trying for some securit…

> When has Apple made that promise? Where do they make that promise?

From apple.com/privacy:

"Every one of the more than 1.8 million apps on the App Store is required to follow strict privacy guidelines and report how it uses your data. And every app is rigorously reviewed by a team of experts at Apple."

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#39

Post by cageface »

granzymes wrote: post #4

Would the number of scams in the top 1000 be higher than 2% if the App Store was not tightly controlled? It doesn't follow that, since some bad things have gotten past the gatekeeper, we should get rid of the gatekeeper.

Apple asks us to relinquish some of our most essential freedoms in exchange for the promise of safety. If they’re not providing that safety it’s a rotten bargain.

Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

#40

Post by [deleted] »

amaBasics wrote: post #26
granzymes wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of users let their guard down because they blindly trust Apple’s marketing, and scammers take advantage of that. This is the "a lot of scammers are better than a few sophisticated scammers" argument, which I disagree with. Users themselves have varying levels of sophistication (unsophisticated scams work just fine on some people), and there are other mechanisms like chargebacks which can unwind damage after t…

Not only is the App Store broken, Apple themselves seem to be intentionally breaking it at times. From the article: > Apple used to have a button, just under the ratings and reviews section in the App Store, that said “report a problem,” which allowed users to report inappropriate apps. Based on discussions among Apple customers on Apple’s own website, the feature was removed some time around 2016. Why would they rem…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN