Apple has convinced the world+dog that its over-controlled App store is so secure that hardly anything dodgy gets through. This autocratic approach is well worth developers having to fork over a third of their profits to Apple.
This might be true if it was real, but according to the Washington Post there are lots of apps in the App store which are dodgy.
Customers for several VPN apps, which allegedly protect users' data, complained in Apple App Store reviews that the apps told users their devices have been infected by a virus to dupe them into downloading and paying for software they don't need.
A QR code reader app that remains on the store tricks customers into paying $4.99 a week for a service that is now included in the camera app of the iPhone. Some apps fraudulently present themselves as being from major brands such as Amazon and Samsung.
Of the highest 1,000 grossing apps on the App Store, nearly two percent are scams, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
And those apps have bilked consumers out of an estimated $48 million during the time they've been on the App Store, according to market research firm Appfigures.
The scale of the problem has never been reported mostly because it relies on US tech reporters doing their jobs rather than trying to form loving relationships with Apple.
According to The Post's analysis, are "fleeceware" apps that use inauthentic customer reviews to move up in the App Store rankings and give apps a sense of legitimacy to convince customers to pay higher prices for a service usually offered elsewhere with higher legitimate customer reviews.
There's evidence that when it comes to a particular type of scam, Apple's store is no safer than Google's. Avast analysed both the Apple and Google app stores in March, looking for fleeceware apps. The company found 134 in the App Store and 70 on the Play Store, with over a billion downloads, about half on Android and half on iOS, and revenue of $365 million on Apple and $38.5 million on Android. Most the victims were in the United States.
