“Apple could prevent SO MANY App Store misleading-subscription scams if they eliminated weekly billing as an option,” tweeted Marco Arment, developer of the podcasting client Overcast and other Mac and iOS apps. The option of a weekly subscription, not the more familiar monthly billing, may also invite abuse.
“Since high App Store ratings can entice people into downloading a scam app, it’s no surprise that there are services that provide high ratings” emailed Brent Simmons, a longtime developer of such apps as the RSS reader NetNewsWire. “At *no point* did they show even the slightest sign of acknowledging the broader issue or that they are responsible for the problem of fake ratings-which affects the livelihoods of hard-working honest developers as well as millions, if not billions, of App Store users,” Eleftheriou said.Īpple PR did not respond to an email sent Friday morning.Įleftheriou’s advocacy has gotten the attention of other Mac developers who agree that the App Store has a problem with fake ratings. Company representatives eventually told him via email that the company had removed many of the apps he’d flagged but did not address his complaint about app ratings. He said Apple ignored his attempts to report that ripoff through developer channels, leading him to take to Twitter instead. He has been on a tear about App Store fraud since the start of the month, when he found a clone of FlickType charging users $7.99 a week for the privilege. “It’s past time Apple acknowledged the issue, and delivered a substantial overhaul of the ratings system,” Eleftheriou wrote in an email.
Roki’s India-based developers did not answer an e-mail sent Friday morning. Roku declined to comment beyond suggesting that users stick to its own app.
Some of these reviews blame Roku for this third-party app, even though that San Jose, Calif., firm has long offered its own free mobile app, complete with remote-control capabilities for its streaming-media players.
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