There now appears to be a 3rd fraudulent app and account called "CatchPhrasepro" - lsj. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/catchphrasepro/id407216102?mt=8 So this is what we know of so far.. "Shagginess Momo" - ReChilf "Shagginess LeLe" - DFS-Soft "CatchPhrasepro" - lsj ... and counting. Obviously all apps/accounts by the same scammer using different account names. If you read the reviews under the apps you'll see that at least one person discovered they got ripped off by all 3 apps at the same time. The "fraud reviews" keep coming in daily but the fraudulent apps and accounts by this scammer seem to be continuing to enter the store at a quick rate themselves.
and apple is approving these? thats insane. This is probably an apple scheme to make extra money (jk of course)
I just noticed a Chinese-made app called "Cover Orange!" which is a blatant ripoff of FDG Entertainment's game. They copied art assets, level design, and even the app description. Not exactly what you guys are talking about, but definitely fraudulent.
I think this deserves a bump to make more people aware. You can add another app to the list. The name is chinese and is from gameislive productions. Apple need to fix this.
Has it occured to any of you that this may be a publicity stunt on the developer's part to draw attention to the app, be it good or bad? It's a simple consumer reinforcement, and the more hits they get on google, the more likely they are to receive webpage views from curious customers. They gain advertising revenue the more attention they get. Does it not seem odd To you that this person only had $5 left in their account, yet is up-to-date about all of the latest scams? Don't click on any of the iTunes links the OP provided and don't go looking on the app store for it just in case it really does take your money upon clicking on it.
Why would you imagine this to be a publicity stunt? It's a real scam, I know because $5 was deducted from my account without me spending it, the only way I found out where it went was by seeing this scammer's app in my purchase history afterward when I was trying to figure out what happened to it. The scammer found a way to steal passwords/account info from people somehow, maybe by hacking or through some previous app people downloaded, IAP? or something got them the info they needed. I found out about the other fraudulent apps from this scammer by clicking on the reviewer's sns to read their other reviews, and saw that one of them got ripped off by other $4.99 shit apps in the store at the same time. It doesn't take a scientist to put 2 and 2 together from there with all the similarities. This scammer has 3 apps that we know of so far and there is a new review just about each and everyday from someone getting credit stolen. Meaning that he's still doing it. Apple returned my credit last week and say they are investigating (obviously slowly) But back to your publicity stunt theory. How would it make sense? I don't know about you but if I go to the store to see an app and I see all the reviewers shouting "fraud" underneath it, that's not exactly gonna tempt me or anyone else to buy the app... is it genius? Those are real reviews, real negative and real fraud. This scammer is ripping people off and you seem like you're in some kind of paranoid denial about the fact that there's a scammer in the store or something. And the links I posted are just so people can see for themselves, you can't get your money stolen from simply looking at an app in the store, if that were possible I'm sure everyone would be broke already. Do the world a favor cupcake, don't go to school to be a detective.
yeah but think about how many people he's doing it to, it must be adding up especially from the people who aren't noticing. There are criminals who rob banks and then there are criminals who rob gas stations, some are happy if they get $100 and some are only happy if they get $10,000. It may not sound like a big scam but the scammer is still deducting money from people's accounts and stealing, something I'm sure nobody here is cool with or would want to happen to them. Something must be up though, there's no way Apple isn't looking into this with all the people getting ripped off and reporting the app(s).
The apps are just 3 $5 garbage apps(you know, the kind no one in their right mind would spend a penny on), apparanty each of the 3 known apps is under a different scam account, but its the same scammer. Somehow he or she is obtaining some people's itunes account info/password and then using their accounts without them knowing to purchase his garbage $5 apps, hence making himself money in the process, especially from people who don't notice the purchase under their account or report/contact Apple and ask for a refund. How exactly is the scammer doing it or obtaining people's account info? I don't know, but its happening and Apple needs to do something about it. Every day you see a new review under one or 2 of these apps of someone getting ripped off $5 here and there. I've googled/read a few articles about fraud in the app store the past few days. I'm guessing this dev is either hacking into itunes to get people's account info like scammers have done in the past, or the people who's accounts are being used all have something in common like they downloaded an app linked to the scammer and/or maybe he got their info through IAP or something like that. I'm only speculating and going by what I read about itunes scams in the past. Here's a few articles about fraudulent apps/developers that got caught earlier this year... http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/07/fraudulent-developer-removed-app-store/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/apple-expels-1000-apps-from-store-after-developer-scam/ http://www.phonedog.com/2010/07/06/apple-responds-to-itunes-fraud-removes-developer-from-app-store/ http://forum.dailymobile.se/index.php?topic=25789.0
Takes money out of your account without consent. I don't understand why Apple aren't sorting this out.
It now appears that 2 of the 3 fraudulent apps have been removed from the store! (Shagginess Momo and Shagginess LeLe!) The only fraud app remaining is Catchphrasepro.
What the hell. Now the Shagginess Momo app is back in the store but the customer fraud complaint reviews are gone. The Shagginess LeLe app is still gone though.
Is there any way to check your purchase history now? I tried yesterday but there was no button to check it on my computer! So Now I don't know how to check it! Someone help and tell me how I can please!
Shagginess Momo has once again been removed from the store. The dev must've tried to submit it again and someone at Apple unaware of the fraud approved it. But its gone again now. The last remaining fraudulent app from this scammer that we know of "Catchphrasepro" is still in the store and the reviews coming from people getting ripped off in the past few days have really cranked up. For some reason Apple must not be aware of this one yet.
