Over the last few weeks, developer Kosta Eleftheriou has been sharing details on how scam apps game Apple’s App Store, sometimes raking in millions of dollars and lasting for months or in some cases years. Apple has this month taken down some of the scams that have been brought to light. However, today Kosta shared his existing deep concerns about the state of App Store ratings and how they’re abused by scams.
Apple does take App Store fraud earnestly, but with the massive size of the marketplace, often has to respond retroactively. That’s actually the same trouble it has run into with its new app privacy labels launching on the honor system – something the US government just urged Apple to improve.
Early this morning, Kosta wrote another detailed thread on how scams abuse the App Store rating system. And at the heart of his concerns, is the same issue that app privacy labels are facing – ensuring the validity of apps’ information – in this case the feedback from users – so it’s really something consumers can trust.
Kosta does a step by step walkthrough on how to find apps that are abusing App Store ratings in five minutes:
What Apple doesn’t want you to know about the App Store👇
“The apps you love, from a place you can trust” they tell you. But the reality is far from it.
A 4.5-star app? Might as well be a multi-million dollar scam.
How, you ask?
1/🧵
— Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) February 12, 2021
Kosta says that this Roki (riding the coattails of Roku) has taken more than $2 million from consumers in about two years.
But Kosta, I hear you say. Some scams might be really hard to detect. Apple can’t be expected to find all of them!
Well, let me show you just how easy it is to find one of them:
Hmm… “Roki” is a suspiciously similar spelling to “Roku”.
Let’s take a closer look: pic.twitter.com/pqceTfIDH8
Out of 15,000 ratings, only 338 reviews! And their average?
1.7 stars
ONE. POINT. SEVEN.
In closing, Kosta asks Apple to take action to make the App Store a trusted marketplace.
This app has already stolen more than $2M from people since 2019, and is on track to steal more than double that this year alone.
And it’s only one of the many scams this same “developer” is currently operating.
All because they can keep buying their ratings. pic.twitter.com/LZgzhagpaJ
With the recent letter from the US House Committee requesting more details from Apple over the App Store privacy labels, it may not be long before the review system is officially scrutinized as well.
So please Apple, do something. Make the App Store a trusted place to discover apps.
And until you do, protect your customers by letting them know that ratings can’t be trusted.
It’s time to right this wrong and publicly acknowledge this.
Thanks for listening.
