There are lots of articles like this that report breathlessly on the numerator but don’t make any kind of effort to find out what the denominator is.
Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
141–150 of 261 posts
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#142Earlier 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…
The issue here is that Apple is facilitating wire fraud, which is extremely illegal in the United States. The bad actors who created that app are committing wire fraud on an Apple platform, which is of course colloquially known as the App Store. The problem is that if you are associated with a crime committed in the United States in any way (besides being a very distant third-person witness with no associations whats…
> There are also catch-all laws in the US that one can go to prison for, basically for acting in "bad faith" but never actually doing anything else criminally wrong.
As someone who used to be a criminal prosecutor in the US, I would be very interested in seeing citations to whatever statute you are referencing.
As far as being charged as an accessory, you generally need to have known that a crime was or would be occurring, and to have provided some form of assistance. That doesn't need to be direct actions in the act, it could be financial or emotional assistance.
And no one is going to prison over shoplifting unless we're talking about repeat offenders or large amounts of cash. Let alone just happening to know someone who shoplifted and failing to report them.
Having said that, definitely don't talk to the police without a lawyer present.
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#143Earlier 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…
The problem isn't that Apple should be responsible and isn't, the problem is Apple is extremely paternalistic but in a way where it gets all the powers but skirts all the responsibilities. If the responsibility is too impossible (and I'm fine saying that it is), then their paternalism shouldn't be called out and their reputation knocked down a rung or two. Instead, they get to keep a reputation which is far better th…
> their paternalism shouldn't be called out
Totally off topic: that phrasing made my brain skip a beat. I've always seen "called out" used to convey confrontation, especially in a public manner like "He called out Apple on Twitter for their paternalism." Turns out a similarly common use is the more general "to bring attention to" in a positive way.
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#144"[N]early two million apps" and almost all of them are total junk because no one adheres to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines[1]. It's a sea of garbage. Real quality operation you run, Schiller. Every time I browse the App Store I feel like I'm walking through a bazaar. No coherency. No taste. Nordstrom my behind.
[1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#145The 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.
Their PR lets them have it both ways.
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#146The 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…
Competing app stores like F-Droid have far less scams that both the iOS and Google Play Stores.
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#147So there's this "Wrong Button!"[0] in the app store that just plays a "Wrong" sound clip when you click it. And also it has 5 different ads on the screen, an unskippable ad on opening the app that forces open Safari to view another ad, and a "Share" function presumably so they can bombard your friends with ads too.
Now I thought this was crappy, and I wanted the "Wrong" sound clip as said by Trump, so last week for fun I made a Wrong button that has no ads, plays the actual "Wrong" clip from Trump, and costs $1 as a one-time payment.
I got rejected, because the functionality was too minimal, and they said that I should add features. Hmm. It feels like their approval process is pretty inconsistent, kinda arbitrary. I kinda want to write back to them to figure out what exactly the existing "Wrong Button!" app has that I'm missing, like is ads mandatory? But also I feel like it's not worth my time. Frustrating.
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Trezor advertises itself as the most secure way to store bitcoins, yet he lost all his bitcoins. Not sure how you concluded I'm blaming the victim here.
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#149The 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'm not blaming Apple for not stopping these scams
Why not? You should blame them. They have positioned themselves as the gatekeepers. Why? To extract profit from application developers. However, such a powerful position also comes with expectations and responsibilities. They should absolutely not be allowed to get away with gross negligence.
We absolutely must blame them every single time they fail to keep malicious software out. They are responsible for that man's losses and should fully indemnify him. Had they not approved that software, it would not have happened.
Nobody cares about their "scale" or how "difficult" it is for them to determine what is and isn't malicious. They have assumed that responsibility by gatekeeping their devices and therefore any failures are directly attributable to them.
Re: Apple’s tightly controlled App Store is teeming with scams
#150Related previous threads:
Apple store fake app stole man's life savings in Bitcoin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26956568 - April 2021 (89 comments)
Apple’s $64 billion-a-year App Store isn’t catching the most egregious scams - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26888190 - April 2021 (6 comments)
$5M/year VPN scam on the AppStore - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26807566 - April 2021 (6 comments)
A top-grossing scam on the App Store - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26794228 - April 2021 (269 comments)
iOS developer who drew attention to App Store scams is now suing Apple - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26504158 - March 2021 (45 comments)
Apple cracks down on ‘irrationally high prices’ as App Store scams are exposed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26198098 - Feb 2021 (5 comments)
Apple’s App Store is hosting multi-million dollar scams - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26069660 - Feb 2021 (8 comments)
Developer exposes multiple million-dollar scam apps on the App Store - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26067364 - Feb 2021 (8 comments)
How to spot a $5M/year scam on the App Store, in 5 minutes flat - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26054673 - Feb 2021 (13 comments)
Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25986515 - Feb 2021 (320 comments)
Apple Pulling High-Grossing Scammy Offer Subscription Apps Off the App Store - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18260514 - Oct 2018 (73 comments)
How to scam and get 67k all 5 Star reviews on the app store - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16034764 - Dec 2017 (36 comments)
$80k/month App Store Scam - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14526156 - June 2017 (195 comments)
Don’t Be Fooled: The Mac App Store Is Full of Scams - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13052127 - Nov 2016 (16 comments)