Getting your iOS app of 3 years wiped out by scammers with fake ratings - or - “Apple, how on…
By: Watchchat Alex
Tags: iOS App Development, Scam, Apple, Appocalypse, App Store

Why do I care so much? Obviously because my business suffers a lot from having these apps show up above me in the search results. Users see an app with an appropriate rating and another one with a phenomenal rating. I cannot blame the users. When they try two apps with perfect ratings that do not work well, why would they give the third search result, MY app, a shot if it promises the same things? Because they do not know that my app - unlike the other two - actually delivers, they are now stuck with paying for these fake apps and often are unaware of the fact that you can request refunds in order to switch to an app that works (especially when the [real] app has worse [honest] ratings).

Why should you as a customer care? Apple is known for their strict review process and their very restrictive App Store. Apple sells you the story of the App Store being a safe environment to download apps. You have probably heard about the fake VPN scams cashing in $200k+ that Apple did nothing against for months or about how there is literal malware on the App Store. FlickType developer Kosta Eleftheriou, who is in a similar situation, has also made unsuccessful attempts at reporting such behavior and only a Twitter story gaining traction eventually reached the right people at Apple.

Mistakes can happen, that is for sure. But when people report malicious behavior and Apple refuses to take action, what can we make of that?

Do we really have to get media outlets to report on issues before the company in charge reacts to them? Would it not be in Apple’s best interest, instead of waiting for a tweet to earn thousands of retweets, to just react to the preceding user report?

I do understand that Apple cannot just blindly ban apps that have an Asian fake review in their ratings. If that was the case, people would just order fake reviews on each other to get the competition banned. But deleting the fraudulent reviews/ triggering a ratings reset should be THE LEAST that Apple could do to make the App Store a level playing field. One would think that Apple cares about their customers as well as developers who bring content to their stores.

So how DOES Apple “manage” reports? You basically get one of the following responses:

A) Thank you for providing a screenshot of those reviews. B) We are investigating this reported issue and will contact you if more information is needed. C) We can assure you our case has been routed to the appropriate Apple teams for review and consideration.

And that is the last thing you will ever hear from them. There is no follow-up as in “we did not find any wrongdoing” or “we have contacted the developer”, there is no transparency. One developer DID change something I have reported, but only on the iPhone app, not in the Watch Extension. Was it due to my report? Was it by coincidence? Did Apple miss checking the Watch Extension as well? Should I contact Apple again to make them aware of it if my report has triggered the change? Or would contacting them again only lower my reputation at Apple? How should I decide if they do not tell me if/what they have done? Unless they let you know the outcome, you literally have no way of knowing what you can do to improve this situation and if a follow-up on your side would be appreciated by Apple. However, given that they did not seem to care much about me here at all, I doubt that “Report” button does anything to begin with except for triggering the robotic response above.

You will understand that I feel misunderstood.