WARNING: Beware the SCAM apps!!

This is a WARNING post, to ALERT you, the readers of the iPhoneography blog that there may be, and I repeat may be, a bunch of scam apps currently appearing in the App Store.

So far, 3 questionable apps have been spotted by the eagle eyed Mr Timney, and in all 3 cases they have similar names, similar icons, don't do as advertised, and in 2 of the 3 cases, even use the same screenshots in the App Store descriptions!!

The 3 apps currently in question are...

Whilst this is not the first, nor last time, that scam apps have made it in to the App Store, it does once again bring in to question Apple's app approval process, and the misuse of promo codes, as it is being reported that on the day of release, these apps attracted a number of possibly fake 5 star reviews, quickly followed by what would appear to be genuine user 1 star reviews, with comments being left in the App Store like:

• "This does not work. All you can do is put lame overlays on top and boring frames around it. Nothing like the examples. Please fix bug! Save the 2.00."
• "Clearly someone at the company is just giving this app 5stars. The UI does not look like it does in the screen shots. No support for square format. It works like a super crappy wallpaper maker that has like 10 options/"effects". DO NOT BUY!!!"
• "This app is false advertisement. The screen shots are NOTHING like the app and it does not do anything that is advertised!!"
• "this app looks nothing like the screenshots. they just stole my dollar, basically"
• "This advertisement is totally false!!! do not buy!!!"

I am sufficiently satisfied that these apps are of a questionable nature, hence this post, and the good news is, Apple are aware of these apps, and are currently investigating them.

Update on Monday, November 7, 2011 at 5:53PM by Editor

Based on this screenshot, this looks like another one to be aware of.

Update on Monday, November 7, 2011 at 8:59PM by Editor

Icons look familiar? You might get more than you expected if you buy this app.

Comments

[mtv]

Magic Photo Effects can be added as well

[Nuno M.]

The apps by the "developer/developers" going under these names look pretty fishy to me too :

- iDevelopersLab
- iWWApps
- ChiYouApps
- Creanncy
- CreativeAppDev

And there may be more...

Actually, I´d say they are the exact same person/persons that you point out in your post. For a few weeks now, they have flooded the Appstore with dozens of Apps that basically seem like different "skins" for the same thing, at 2.99$, all of them.

[John V. Keogh]

Thanks for the warning. Just checked i haven't got those.

[Zach]

Add 'Large Aperture Pro' to that list. Does not work as advertised and has a slew of false 5 star reviews in the App store. I was recently taken in by this one. :(

[Espekayen]

I'm amazed Apple's approval procedure didn't pick up on these apps. What are they approving, exactly, if not that apps work as advertised? Then again, they do approve apps that are complete and utter crap, so perhaps it's not that surprising that these have slipped through the net.

Thanks for the warning, Glyn. Fortunately, I have not purchased any of the suspicious apps.

[Mr Timney]

@ Nuno M

Yes those are next on my list & I'd bet a pretty penny those are MoLinker apps all over again under a slew of new fake registered names.

[GlenGregory2]

I like to read a reputable review first before buying, such as these on iPhoneography.com. You guys are my guide on photo apps.

[Robert-Paul Jansen]

I have seen an increase in these kind of apps, which is a shame. I can spot these apps, or just wait and see what happens. But I'll bet there are lots who have bought them. Thanks for posting this, I hope this will stop someday, because the 'good' apps are affected too.

[Espekayen]

If Apple are investigating the apps in question, you'd think they would temporarily pull the apps from the App Store. The three apps mentioned by Glyn are still on sale! Madness.

[Steve A]

It seems like there are two approaches to creating apps.

1: try and make them as good as possible
2: try and make them as crap as possible

It is pretty disheartening as a developer using the first approach to see all these second approach apps flooding the store.

Apple delays payments to devs by a month so let's hope they catch on before the devs cash out

[Claro Costa Rica]

Thanks for the advice, I hate those kind of apps, they claim to be wonderful but they are sh*t!

[Mr Tmney]

@ Steve

Very true, but the difference is you have morals & values first & the desire to produce the same quality products that you yourself would expect to buy. That is a great way to be, as we see others at times think only of the cash cow they think their poorly developed & deceiving apps will potentially bring them.

[StormyGirl]

Glad I could atleast put you one the 1st on "Camera+ After Effects" on 25 Sep 2011 & then again last night "Camera+ Magic Effects"!!

You can read my rants on these on the after fact but glad I helped to find them, also!

Thanks, Mr_Timney for when I finally got attention about this! And I'm still not lying down about it as you can see on my IG page. I'm pissed!! STILL

L8r~Peace

[Jim Moore]

Can't believe these get thru the approval process and into the App Store. It's tough as is developing apps and generating the interest to make it a success without fighting thru white noise like this. In saying that for every one of these there are ten good ones; let's hope Apple start to retain their quality standards

[Marc R Bravo]

You see this kindof thing all the time. Thanks for taking the time to post about it. I've never been scammed, but I know what to look for. Having a post like this with names & screenshots is an excellent service to fellow iphoneographers. I hope we all take a second to share on whatever we share stuff on.

[SNNBX]

It was about time these iPHONEY apps/developers got expose!

[Kent Kangley]

I'm looking at Camera+ After Affects in Apple's App Store, and they have 1443 reviews and a full five star rating. Even the real Camera+ only gets 4.5 stars from 247 reviews. But if you actually look at the reviews for the fake, they are all 1 star posted by a lot of very angry people. They are clearly gaming the review system.

[ILAR]

This one's a faker.

http://itunes.apple.com/tw/app/photo-art/id455707639?mt=8

The ratings pattern indicate all the symptoms described above. The support page redirects to a *parked* webpage.

[geoff]

Nice one ILAR, Photoart is a piece of SH#T, all trhe reviews stayed the same, 5 stars and just the dates changed with each day, unfortunatly i got done and posted a bad review for it saying why are they removing all the true reviews and keeping the good ones, after that they put it back on, havent checked it out for a while to see if mny review is still there, but its definately one stay away from, Photoart sux,photoart sux ,Photoart sux, rip off, hehe just so you dont forget it.

[Anne]

You can add FishEye Camera to the list of apps with fake 5 star reviews.