Link: The App Scams continue

Marty Yawnick over at Life in LoFi has just written an excellent article, titled: "Warning! App Store Scams – Artistic Typography Photo FX and a Bunch of Others". This article about the current crop of App Store scams is a must read, and is an extension of the post I wrote back in August 2012 about the same Chinese consortium of scam app developers, that Apple seem unwilling to do anything about!!

WARNING: Follow the App Scam Trail

Click on the above graphic for a larger view, and follow the trailOver the weekend I was contacted by a couple of people who had identified and been following a bunch of scam app developers, that are targeting the photo app category, as well as the none photo app category, both on the iPhone and iPad platform with their clone/duplicate apps. Whilst this is nothing new [we've reported here and here on fake and scam apps in the past], this scam looks bigger and deeper than any we've reported on before.

The list of scam/duplicate apps are all naff and generally unappealing, however for me, one conned person is one too many, and for this reason I'm highlighting the app developers that I know of so far, their apps, and how to spot these and other potential scam apps from this group/consortium.

So who are they, and what apps have they released so far? Well, below I have listed the developers that I am aware of so far, highlighting a couple of them and their apps. All exist in the US App Store, whilst only some of the developers and/or apps exist else where.

• AaaBe Media Group - Abstract Wings HD
• Adagio Media
• Apex Digit
• Autoalias Digital Co. - Art Wings
• Automax LLC
• Dan Lei Su - Artistic Wing Booth HD
• Mad Phone - Artistic Wings HD
• Ping Hau Luo
• Zhi Ming Bao

So, how to spot one of these scammers? Well, this appears to be the easy bit, as all the scam apps have the same price, are offered at a "TODAY" only price [that never changes], have lots of 5 star [fake] reviews and some 1 star reviews from people that have been conned, are listed as "Best APP by "Mac REALWorld" 2011" [which is a none existent website] and App Store "New and Worth" [notice the spelling errors], have identical app descriptions [see below] and the app support/website is an unfinished wordpress.com site.

"Artistic Wings HD is a magical app which can help you become an angel , a devil or an elf by only 3/4 steps.It provides lots of different wings to make your ordinary photo extraordinary."

"Wings HD is a magical app which can help you become an angel , a devil or an elf by only 3/4 steps.It provides lots of different wings to make your ordinary photo extraordinary."

"Abstract Wings HD is a magical app which can help you become an angel , a devil or an elf by only 3/4 steps.It provides lots of different wings to make your ordinary photo extraordinary."

So with these scam apps so easy to spot, how do they keep getting through the so called tough Apple approval process? Well, that's the question I'll be asking Apple's Phil Schiller.

So, you've been warned. Pass the word around, and avoid these apps and their developers like the plague.

WARNING: Beware the SCAM apps!!

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

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

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...

Click to read more ...

Shiningworks, new start or damage limitation?

A few days ago I received the following email from Shiningworks Marketing Director, Mark Cui.

"Hi Glyn,

I am Mark Cui, Marketing Director of Shiningworks. 

Shiningworks is a startup company with management team in US and China.  We have been merging a series of companies in app development field in Asia, including Molinker, recently. 

We are taking over Molinker’s app products on Apple App Store and its photo processing technology from the company behind it, Asmartvision, who decided to switch their business focus away from iphone platform.

Shiningworks believes the future of mobile internet and mobile app, we will do our best to develop better products, and will be do our best to contribute on building a healthy developer community. 

The take-over process is going on and will be finished this week, we will keep public informed. 

Best Regards,

Mark Cui

Marketing Director, Shiningworks"

I replied to Mark asking him if it was OK to publish his email, and he replied with the following email, saying yes.

"Hi Glyn,

Thank you for your quick response.  It would be a great help if you could make it public.

We are working hard on team building, product roadmap planning, as well as product reviewing.  We believe we could present much more attractive apps for app users in the coming new year,  and we are determined to do our best to turn Shiningworks be a strong brand in mobile app market.

Happy New Year!

Mark Cui

Marketing Director, Shiningworks"

Now on the face of it, it would appear that Shinningworks [Molinker] are trying to mend its ways by being taken over by Shiningworks, but as has already been pointed out by Patrick and other readers, Shiningworks apps has already been spotted with what appear to be bogus reviews and ratings.

So is this a new start or damage limitation by Shiningworks? At the moment I am sat on the fence waiting to see just what Shiningworks will do next with the Molinker merger and their apps, and I will be watching their app reviews and ratings, so if you see anything that looks suspicious from this developer, then please let me know, and we will investigate.

WARNING - made in China: Molinker morphs in to ShiningWorks to scam again

*** 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