The world is full of people trying to separate you from your hard earned dollars. It appears there are unscrupulous scam app developers out there as well! I recently came across quite the network of scam photo apps that you should watch out for!
Here’s the scam: They post their crappy app (these ones tended to be apps that did a variety of creative FX on your photos). It contains a number of fake 5 star reviews RIGHT from the start (clue#1 that something fishy is going on). People download it. It’s crap. Some people ask for their money back. The app is taken off the store, then is put back on with a different name, but is the same crappy app. More people download it. They do it all again. Sometimes the same app is on the store numerous times, just with another name and somewhat different screen shots.
Another clue is in their description is that they claim the app is on sale from $4.99->$2.99 for TODAY!…..yet it never goes back up in price. Also claims to be the best APP 2013…or whatever year this is when you read this.
Oh, and their support pages that are linked on the app store? Unfinished word press sites. Umm.. doesn’t Apple check these things?
I spent hours creating a web page for my apps so customers can get help, answers, or learn more about the different versions of the apps.
Another scammer trick? Many of these apps appeared to start with the letter A, so they will show up first in the lists. Smart in one way I guess.
And with all these versions floating around, other great apps aren’t getting seen. Like mine. And yours. So these scumbags are getting your hard earned $3 instead of me, an honest developer with a great app.
How is that fair?
And that’s just from the developer side…how about the Apple consumer who downloaded these apps and feel ripped off? Now they have to go back to Apple and ask for a refund. Which from what I hear Apple is pretty good about..but can take a bit of time.
But frankly, Apple shouldn’t be letting these apps get on the store in the first place.
I had my app rejected TWICE because improper use of iPad…once for using it where I shouldn’t…and once for improper capitalization.
Thankfully, there are people who have taken note of this and are making people aware.
Marty Yawnick and Glyn Evans are the guys behind two great iPhoneography resources, Life in Lofi and iPhoneography.com.
They started noticing these scam apps, and they (and other iPhoneographers on the lookout) began compiling lists of these scam apps with the developers.
You can read more about this here and here on LifeinLofi and here on iPhoneography.com
I’m happy to report that thanks to everyone’s efforts it appears Apple has removed most of them and their crap from the store.
But…something tells me…
Noel Chenier
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