Apple
recently announced that it hadreversed
more than 70 billion dollarsto developers since the launch of
the App Store in 2008. 30% of this sum, or 21 billion, would have been
generated during the previous year only, synonymous with an increase
enormous from year to year.
An article by Johnny Lin
on the medium websitereveals one of the hidden sides of the App Store with the
observation of abooming market for bogus appswhich generates a
significant turnover for the crooks behind these scams, but
also for Apple which receives a commission for each transaction.
Johnny Lin has
carried out an investigationon the apps present in the top of the ranking of
profitable apps. He discovered that several appstook advantage of
new subscription systemto charge enormous sums in
counterpart of services not working.
Most of the scams highlighted by Johnny Lin's investigation
concern apps thatplay on fear and security, has
namely apps such as virus scanners, VPNs, or word generators.
passe.
He takes as an example an app called "Mobile protection :Clean
& Security VPN" and which presents itself as an app capable of
scan iPhone for viruses. The developer charges for this service
with a subscription of$99.99 per week!
It is impossible for an app to offer such a service, because apps
third parties are isolated from each other bytechniques of
Sandboxing, precisely in order to guarantee the safety of users and
of their data.
Validation of the subscription is done by identification via Touch ID and
only a small text at the end mentions the renewal amount and duration
of the subscription.
A large majority of users do not let themselves be fooled, but the
presence of the app in the ranking of profitable apps means that
enough users are being fooled.
According to data from Sensor Tower, this app generates approximately
$80,000 in income per monthfor a non-existent service,
misleading users and playing on their fear of viruses that cause
disappear the data.
Johnny Lin's report mentions another alarming fact, namely that the
scammers behind these apps are using the new system ofresults of
sponsored researchfor the App Store to highlight their apps
cans.
This raises another problem on Apple's side, namely the fact that for
at the moment, there is nono filtering or validation process
for sponsored search results.
Johnny Lin mentions several ways to correct this problem, making it easier
the unsubscription process in particular, by adding a new step before
validating a subscription, but also by monitoring the ranking of apps
cost-effective way to remove suspicious apps and reimburse users.
In the meantime, there are a few precautions to take, such as using
common sense, read app reviews, as well as read the app description
to detect suspicious information and, above all, read carefully what is displayed
when an app requests access to Touch ID to validate any
payment.
i-nfo.fr - Official iPhon.fr app
By : Keleops AG
Deputy editor-in-chief, also known under the pseudonym Teza. Former video games journalist, who has been immersed in technology and Apple products since his very first iPhone 3GS in 2009. He has since worked for several American tech sites and now for iPhon.fr. Incidentally YouTuber and Apple product specialist on the MobileAddict channel. To contact me: maxime[a]iphon.fr
