WARNING - made in China: Molinker morphs in to ShiningWorks to scam again
Friday, December 18, 2009 at 10:10PM | Glyn Evans *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING ***
Following the app review and ratings scam that was uncovered by Patrick Timney [a.k.a. SCW] and exposed by me [Glyn Evans] here on the iPhoneography blog, comes another warning from the AppStore whistleblowers.
As you probably all now by know, Patrick is very passionate about his photo apps, checking just about every photo app released, either by buying the app or as a beta tester, so it will come as no surprise to you that he smelt a rat whilst checking out a new photo app called "R & B" from as new developer called "ShiningWorks". Patrick decided to check out the developers website and was amazed at what he found. First off the website appeared incomplete, which in itself is not uncommon, as a lot of new apps have incomplete or even no supporting website what so ever. No, it was the website site header itself that set the alarm bells ringing, as it clearly and blatantly said "molinker" "LINK LIFE THROUGH MOBILE", which If you look closely, you will notice they are planning to release travel apps "City Travel Guide" and "Tourist Attractions Guide"...
...and a quick look at the website footer revealed "© Copyright 2009 - Molinker - All rights Reserved" [editor: "how stupid do these developers think we are?"].
So Patrick donned his dear stalker and headed off to in to the AppStore and internet to see what he could fined, and here is his findings.
In the AppStore
At time of writing this post, ShiningWorks [a.k.a. Molinker] had 23 apps that dated back to October 2009, ranging from firework apps!!! to what looks to be some nice photo apps [editor: we've heard this before, haven't we?]. Apart from the photo app "R & B", none of the other apps looked like anything special, but it came as no surprise when Patrick discovered a 5 star review for one of the £0.59/$0.99 firework apps, possibly made by the developer himself [MarkItunes].
Who is ShiningWorks?
To back up his suspicions, Patrick looked up the domain registrants information, and you guessed it, the registrant of ShiningWorks website go2camera.com is Mark Ma, who just by coincidence is the same registrant of molinkerinc.com [see registrant details below]
ShiningWorks website go2camera.com registration details:
Domain Name ..................... go2camera.com
Name Server ..................... dns17.hichina.com
dns18.hichina.com
Registrant ID ................... hc245252355-cn
Registrant Name ................. Mark Ma
Registrant Organization ......... aSmartVision
Registrant Address .............. ShenZhen NanHaiRoad No.27, BHVI sub-Building, Room 201
Registrant City ................. shenzhen
Registrant Province/State ....... guangzhou
Registrant Postal Code .......... 518067
Registrant Country Code ......... CN
Expiration Date ................. 2010-12-09 12:30:01
Information Updated: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:27:19 UTC
This and more information about this domain and its registrant can be found here.
Molinkerinc website molinkerinc.com registration details:
Domain Name ..................... molinkerinc.com
Name Server ..................... dns25.hichina.com
dns26.hichina.com
Registrant ID ................... hc876693113-cn
Registrant Name ................. Mark Ma
Registrant Organization ......... aSmartVision
Registrant Address .............. ShenZhen NanHaiRoad No.27, BHVI sub-Building, Room 201
Registrant City ................. Shenzhen
Registrant Province/State ....... Guangdong
Registrant Postal Code .......... 518067
Registrant Country Code ......... CN
Expiration Date ................. 2010-09-12 04:01:12
Information Updated: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:32:32 UTC
This and more information about this domain and its registrant can be found here.
As you can see from the information above, the evidence is clear, and Molinker have wangled their way back in to the AppStore and are poised to take your money with their new range of apps.
Apple and this new developer
I have emailed Phil Schiller with all the information that Patrick Timney has provided me, but at time of writing this post there has been no comment from Apple, which is a shame, but with Molinker back in the AppStore, the question is, "what are Apple going to do about it?"
Note: We had planned to hold off on this post until this reborn developer had started scamming the reviews and ratings again, but in the interests of everyone decided to bring this post forward to protect you the consumer from this known scamming developer.
Click here to download screenshots of the information collated by Patrick Timney
AppStore Scam, Molinker in Investigation, News 
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Reader Comments (13)
The App Sheriff rides again! Love it.
Thanks for exposing it sooner. Hopefully Apple can just get rid of anything related to Molinker.
Ollie
Apple can't just preemptively delete a developer without causing a ruckus. It's not against the rules to change business names, or rebrand. There will need to be a clear abuse before Apple can step in.
So I guess Apple will NOT refund our money for buying this developers "scam rated" products?
Anyone get there money back?
Wow that's horrible. I am so glad we have you two to stop people like this from scamming us. I'm not surprised Apple didn't thank you guys. I wouldn't be surprised if they even took credit for it.
Great job here Glyn. You and Patrick are becoming the dynamic duo of App Store justice. Just posted the short version of your epic tale. Brilliant!!
http://www.iphonesavior.com/2009/12/banned-molinker-hits-app-store-with-new-dba.html
Hardly surprising -- but the real question is what are Apple going to do about it?
Thanks for the expose. Those jokers are still alive then to scam. I am cautious abt China products. Don't mind me saying that since quality is disputable. Keep up
the good work.
Keep at it guys!!!
Apple need to tackle this problem head on and sort out this spam app guys review fraud is just the tip of the ice berg
I'm curiousas to why it is so easy for them to just open a new account as a different developer. Interesting... to those that caught the scam early, good job guys!
This is just another reason I support jailbreaking and a proper try before you buy... I know most don't, but many of us do support developers who have made an effort to release a good product and support the future of that app.
@JuanO. I think they knew they would get caught out sooner or later, so in October they created this new account and began sneaking their apps in, so Apple were probably as unaware of this as we were, but Apple do know about them now.
You may not get a response til next year.
A lot of people are already on vacation for the holidays.