An app farm infestation is being battled by Apple App Store users. The App Store is being hacked by Apple App scammers who hack iTunes accounts to make purchases of some bogus apps. The hack will go and steal money from iTunes accounts and improve the App Store rankings of the bogus apps.
Some of the greedy scammers blew up the App store cover
The App Store scam may have gone undetected longer if not for a thieving app farm developer with the name Thuat Nguyen. Nguyen got too greedy and 40 of his apps in the books category showed up within the top 50 App Store rankings. Other app developers smelled something wrong and Apple pulled the Thuat Nguyen apps. Thousands of dollars have been stolen by Nguyen and other App Store scammers, who are nevertheless active.
App Store rankings compromised
News about the App Store scam broke when thenextweb.com reported that Thuat Nguyen had hacked some iTunes accounts and purchased his own apps using those accounts. When their popular titles were displaced App Store rankings by Nguyen apps, two iPhone app developers had the alarm sounded. To purchase apps, many iTunes accounts were hacked. Some iTunes users had between $ 100 and $ 1400 spent on their accounts. All iTunes users should check their accounts for stealth purchases of cheap apps (around $ 1-$ 3) followed by one at an outrageous price (around $ 90 ). It was reported by Thenextweb.com that hackers are also signing users up for a free app called World War that sends their money to scammer accounts.
Try to protect yourself from the App store scam
To verify that you’ve or haven’t become a victim of the App Store scam, it’s easy to check the security of your own iTunes account.
This is the procedure done by PCWorld:
Click on your account name on the right hand side of the iTunes menu bar. After entering your password, click on the View Account button. You’ll be taken to the Apple Account Details page where you’re able to view your purchase history. From there, you can make certain that all your app purchases are ones that you’ve made. If you spot an app you didn’t purchase among your recent purchases, click the Report a Problem button. To safeguard against a compromised password, you can click on Edit Account Info to change it. Longer passwords containing numbers and special characters are harder for hackers to crack.
Scamming still is the app farms
The Apple App store scam isn’t done yet. Beranews.com explains that two other developers at least are using comparable practices. Stay from 3 apps by Charismaist. One Charismaist app is an apparent sonic mosquito repellent that has scammed users out of $ 100 at probably the most, despite the fact that it is marked as free. Storm 8’s App Store scam has in-game point purchases costing as much as $ 150. One iTunes user reported up to $ 1,400 in bogus charges from a Storm 8 game. Charismaist and Storm 8 are both still in the App store.
More app store scam information
The Apple App Store scam is used primarily make bogus purchases that elevate all of the apps in the iTunes ranking so that many users will be attracted to the apps depending on their high sales. Look out for app icons with low res images that come from the web. The scammers’ support links direct users to non-existent web sites or landing pages. According to the Next Web, all the bogus apps are owned by unknown, Asia-based developers. Evidently the scam has been happening over the last four weeks.
Discover more about this topic here:
thenextweb.com
thenextweb.com/apple/2010/07/04/app-store-hacked/comment-page-1/#comment-11929
PC World
pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/200503/apps_disappear_from_app_store_amid_hacking_complaints.html
betanews.com
betanews.com/article/Apple-still-silent-as-more-scams-are-found-on-App-Store/1278363193
