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Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams

washingtonpost.com

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

#111

Post by coding123 »

tedunangst wrote: post #18
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…

Why not blame Trezor for allowing a fake app to steal money from his hardware wallet? Did he buy the wallet thinking it would make scams impossible?

This is called blaming the victim. It takes a lot for someone that got scammed to come forward publicly with their story. And it helps others not get scammed too.

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

#112

Post by judge2020 »

smoldesu wrote: post #46
katbyte wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's a strawman. I'm not criticizing Android here, we're talking about Apple's responsibility to the consumer. As someone who owns several Apple devices, I can truly and honestly say that my life would be unequivocally better if I could install custom IPAs to my phone. Furthermore, Apple trusts the user to decide if Facebook can steal their data: why can't they trust the user to install third party apps? If they do…

They don't trust their users to not install pirated apps. It's part of their revenue scheme - if you could install third party IPAs, you could download cracked versions of Apple Arcade apps or apps that bypass the in-app purchase system and don't give apple their 30% cut of digital content. It's the same reason Xbox and Sony restrict you to their stores, Apple's revenue model is just set up to extract more money overall instead of 99% on the backend like consoles do.

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

#113

Post by richardwhiuk »

rawtxapp wrote: post #100
SavantIdiot wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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]. There's a lot more wrong in this scenario than just the app store. If someone is going to be so amazingly careless with half a million dollars...

If someone technical enough to have a hardware wallet and "smart" enough to have amassed half a million dollars falls for this scam, I think it tells you more about how much (misplaced) trust they put in Apple rather than how careless they were, but that's just my opinion.

The real issue is Bitcoin here.

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

#114

Post by abnercoimbre »

cmeacham98 wrote: post #108
______- wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why I said: "for large financial arrangements" Large transactions need extra special care. You need a trusted device with a trusted OS and a trusted browser, preferably with `EASE` turned on in HTTPS Everywhere so plaintext secrets can't leak out of your machine. You also need to vet the HTTPS Everywhere extension and ensure it came from the official addons site. You would also harden the OS. Using Linux is…

Btw, recent versions of Firefox include an "HTTPS only" mode[1], so HTTPS Everywhere is actually unnecessary for this use case nowadays. 1: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/https-only-prefs

Huh neat. And I'm guessing enabling both would be unnecessary and glitchy? I'll uninstall the plugin now -- it has served me well.

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

#115

Post by kjksf »

zepto wrote: post #92
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.

> 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. They don’t. This is made up.

They did. This was literally their defense in Epic lawsuit.

Summarized Apple lawyers said: "We can't offer alternative stores because they would be full of scams which would be bad for users. Our store is curated and safe for users.".

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

#116

Post by amelius »

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…

The problem is that Apple loves to claim that they need full control over their platform to keep their platform safe.

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

#117

Post by jetpackjoe »

topkai22 wrote: post #30
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…

There is a well established principle that retailers bear some responsibility for what they sell. I doubt Home Depot would get away without liability if they sold a dryer that caught on fire and burned down a house if it was found they had acquired the dryer from a dodgy criminal syndicate.

Especially considering there is a review process, and Apple takes a 30% cut.

If it was an open market (no review process), and they just took enough to cover operations and processing fees, I can see them being blameless, but if you are going to review apps, you need to actually review them.

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

#118

Post by cmiles74 »

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…

As ludicrous as it may be to blame Apple, they have said many times that the cut they take on apps and in-app sales is part of how they keep the platform secure and ensure the privacy of their customers.[0] While it's clear to me that they can't really do that, I don't think we can expect the average purchaser of the iPhone to understand just how far-fetched these claims really are. In my opinion, Apple is giving them a false sense of security that can be very dangerous.

Perhaps if Apple was held responsible for these kinds of expensive mishaps they would be more honest in their marketing. Maybe. And that's kind of the point of this article. :-P

[0]: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/554790-cook-says-apple...

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

#119

Post by extra88 »

smoldesu wrote: post #38
defaultname wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Privacy and security are not the same thing. Also, an app can follow all the privacy and security guidelines and still use dark patterns to mislead and get something from you that you wouldn’t otherwise give up or outright defraud you. I’m sure Apple makes a good faith attempt at preventing that as well but they can’t catch everything.

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

#120

Post by School-Cotton »

______- wrote: post #97
rawtxapp wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use their bank's apps, their investment institutions apps (Robinhood, Fidelity, etc) and a lot of other financial apps all the time.

Which is why I said: "for large financial arrangements" Large transactions need extra special care. You need a trusted device with a trusted OS and a trusted browser, preferably with `EASE` turned on in HTTPS Everywhere so plaintext secrets can't leak out of your machine. You also need to vet the HTTPS Everywhere extension and ensure it came from the official addons site. You would also harden the OS. Using Linux is…

You don’t need to do any of this if you’re using the traditional financial system. The most you need to do is make sure you don’t get tricked into wiring to the wrong address, which is a much lower bar.
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