No less than 84 fraudulent applications are still available on the Apple App Store. Their publishers abuse subscription systems to take large sums from users.
In March 2021, the antivirus publisher Avast pointed the finger at 133 App Store applications that abused the subscription system, offloading their users of significant amounts. Today, 84 of them are still present. Applications to uninstall urgently.
Several million dollars stolen from users
More than a year ago, the Sensor Tower site estimated that the 133 fraudulent applications in question had accumulated more than 500 million downloads and $365 million in sales. A year later, the majority of these reported apps (60%) are still present on Apple’s app store.
As of June 2022, these apps had recorded a total of 7.2 million unique downloads, for estimated revenue of $8.6 million per month, or $103.2 million in just one year. Impressive figures when you know that these applications are only those identified by Avast. They may only represent the tip of the iceberg.
They would have defrauded users for more than 100 million dollars, according to VPNCheck which relays this case. The site says it’s extremely easy to spot these apps by simply reading reviews with a single star (out of five). In addition, there are a significant number of paid 5-star reviews with fake tester names to hide the negative reviews.
They do not compromise the security of their users, but offer a subscription at an attractive price, before increasing it significantly the following month. Unsubscribing is also deliberately made complex.
Apple still hasn’t taken the necessary steps
VPNCheck also points the finger at the slowness of Apple to react to remove these applications from its App Store. The money generated by these dubious applications remains an important financial windfall for Apple, which recovers 30% of the revenue generated. Even if, since November 2020 and the case which opposed it to Epic is not for nothing, Apple has reduced its commission to 15% for developers earning less than a million dollars per year.
Moreover, scam apps spend a lot of money advertising on the App Store to attract new users. One more element which, according to the source, could push Apple not to act quickly to put an end to this type of action. Apple would have generated more than 70 billion in revenue in 2021 with its App Store, including four billion with its advertising activity.
To avoid getting tricked in the future, it is always advisable to read reviews with only one star and look for free alternatives to such software. If you are unable to stop your subscription, contact your bank to ask them to stop all payments to these applications.
You can find the complete list of applications concerned by going to this address.
Source :
lemon squeezer