Apple Bans Another Developer, 1000+ Apps Pulled [Developer scamming reviews]

MobileCrunch ^ | Monday, December 7, 2009 | Greg Kumparak

[Star Traveler]

Apple Bans Another Developer, 1000+ Apps Pulled

by Greg Kumparak on December 7, 2009

As the old mantra goes, “Cheaters never prosper”. In this digital age, it may be time to revise that saying. Granted a veil of anonymity by the Internet, cheaters surely prosper from their cheating; it’s just that when they get caught, they go down hard. Alas, “Cheaters may temporarily prosper – but if they get caught, they’re totally boned” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Such was the case earlier today, when the development company behind over 1,000 iPhone applications was busted scamming the review system. In a flash, the developer — and all one thousand of their applications — have been pulled from the store.

On Saturday, a friend of the iPhone photography blog Iphoneography reached out to the blog for a bit of help pooling details on what he believed was a review scam. While looking through the applications offered by Molinker, he noticed that as many as 90% of the reviews on some of their applications appeared to be written by a group of people who only reviewed Molinker applications. On Molinker’s “NightCam Pro”, for example, 42 of the 44 5-star reviews appeared to be fake.

Once they’d managed to accumulate enough data that the tomfoolery was almost undeniable, iPhoneography and the original sleuth both sent a 5+ paragraph report of their findings off to Apple’s VP, Phil Schiller.

At first, there was no response. Had their complaints gone unheard? Was Phil Schiller’s inbox but a brick wall in disguise? Then it happened; in the blink of an eye, all trace of Molinker was gone. Not only had the reviews been pulled, but the entire catalog of Molinker’s 1,011 applications had disappeared.

Schiller later responded via email, saying “Yes, this developer’s apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either.” (There’s gotta be some joke here about Phil Schiller doing away with a mountain of shilled reviews, but I’m not going to be the one to write it.)

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a developer with many hundreds of applications in the store feel the crush of Apple’s banhammer, but it’s the first time to my knowledge that Apple has ever made a huge blow against review fakers.

[antiRepublicrat]

I’m a Windows developer and I’m not offended. Windows developers are used to living in the Wild West, and there are a lot of bad guys out there.

It’s a bit of a shock for them when they try with the App Store what they could get away with on Windows.

[driftdiver]

thats nice

there are a lot of bad people out there. they have both windows and mac in their toolkit. they follow the money

saying all mac developers are honest is BS
saying all windows developers are honest is BS

People are people.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

I was thinking that you could download a couple of bacon and pork related apps and flank the koran app with them on all sides. It might help form a barrier against cross contamination.

Yeah, just call me bacon-breath to my Islamic "buddies"... LOL...

[Star Traveler]

Apple articles posted on Free Republic...

• Who Can Kill the iPhone?
• Apple's iTunes overtakes Amazon in overall music sales
• Apple iPhone expected to drive mobile phone industry toward fancier touch screens
• Apple devotees rush stores for iPhone
• Mac users 'ecstatic' about new Apple Store
• Jobs Is Back, Apple's Still Standing, Life Goes On
• Out with Treos, in with iPhones
• Letters from Microsoft: An Employee Tosses His Zune
• Apple's 99-Cent Apps Are Too Cheap, Microsoft Says
• ONE IN FOUR SONGS IN U.S. BOUGHT ON iTUNES
• "APPLE HAS CHANGED THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED", says MSFT Win Mob chief
• iPhones Cause People To Talk Less
• GROKLAW’S EXCELLENT TAKE ON THE RECENT PSYSTAR SHENANIGANS (Apple Computer)
• PSYSTAR HIT WITH $5K FINE FOR DISCOVERY ABUSE (Apple Computer)
• INTEGO SPOTS MALWARE BLOCKER IN SNOW LEOPARD (Apple Mac OS X)
• Parallels to make switching to the Mac easier, safe and painless
• THE IPHONE & STEVE BALLMER: IT’S TIME FOR HIM TO EAT SOME SERIOUS CROW
• An in-depth look at Psystar’s legal defeat at the hands of Apple
• Has Palm finally given up on the great cat/mouse/iTunes chase of ‘09?
• Jobs’ Personal, Terse Reply to Developer [Apple Computer]
• Android goes for iPhone weak spot: porn apps [Porn is iPhone Killer?]
• Mac sales projected to grow 26% in 2010, outpacing PC market
• Apple's iPhone On Its Way To Becoming The Microsoft Windows Of Mobile
• Is Apple the Mobile Walmart?
• Apple's Base Stations Have Three 802.11n Streams [Faster WiFi on Apple]
• Analysis: Apple Embraces The Cloud, Positions Mobile With Lala Deal [Extends iTunes]
• Forget The iPhone: The iPod touch Is Where It’s At
• >All Hail the iPod touch
• Apple Bans Another Developer, 1000+ Apps Pulled [Developer scamming reviews]

[Star Traveler]

Review scam leads to removal of over 1,000 apps from App Store

AppleInsider
By Brian Garner
Published: Monday, December 7, 2009, 10:00 PM EST

Apple has taken action against app developer Molinker over alleged review fraud, resulting in the removal of all 1,000 of the company's apps.

Thanks to the detective work of one intrepid app store enthusiast, Molinker - developer of close to one percent of all the apps available on the App Store - has been banned from the App Store and all of its apps have been removed.

The issue was first brought to light by photo blog iPhoneography in a post highlighting the concerns of one of its regular readers. Reader SCW had concluded that app developer Molinker had been using its promo codes to write fake 5-star reviews of many of its apps. Each review shared the same short, disjointed style and the reviewers had only written reviews for other Molinker apps.

In a letter to Apple executive Phil Schiller, SCW laid out the case:

I would like to highly suggest to take a deep look into not only the 'reviewers' but I will almost bet that all of these users redeemed 'Promo Codes' for these apps in order to only access the US app store & publish these endless slew of fake postings. All to increase the developers ratings, status, sales & ultimately have a pay-off when potential customers see such high ratings & then just buy the apps.

After sending the email, Phil Schiller responded that Apple would look into the issue. On Sunday, both SCW and iPhoneography received word from Schiller confirming "Yes, this developer's apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no long appear either."

Molinker was a particularly prolific app developer, with over 1,000 apps appearing in the store. The great majority of its apps dealt with photography, travel, and public transportation. AppFreak was able to contact Molinker about the issue and received the following response:

We got email from Apple yesterday which told us our contract is changed to pending status.

Actually we do not know what's wrong so far. We had contacted Apple for such sudden changes, hope we can get quick response and actions from Apple.

As of Monday night, Molinker's website had no mention of what had transpired.

[TheBattman]

Because they come down hard on those running scams using Apple’s resources? Gee, seems this should be an endearing quality.

Unless your reference was to the poster (seriously doubt they represent Apple) of the comment about Windows developers taking note. And even that, I can’t see the relation to Apple products. I think you just don’t like Apple and will grab any headline you can to have an excuse.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Unless your reference was to the poster (seriously doubt they represent Apple)...

Correct..., I'm not a representative of Apple and I don't work for any PR firm representing Apple.

I am a customer, though.... :-)

[got the Macintosh (4 desktops and 1 laptop), AirPort Extreme, iPod, iPhone, use iTunes, and of course, the Mac OS X..., plus frequent the Apple Retail Stores at several locations...]

[RingerSIX]

Take your phony concern and blow it out your a**, jerk!

[Star Traveler]

I said up above ...

The only negative aspect to the whole thing is only when someone says "Windows" -- and that sinks the whole thing... down a deep hole...

Then you replied ...

Take your phony concern and blow it out your a**, jerk!

---

Ummmm..., we can see why Windows developers, and their typical attitude, have a tough time in the honest environment of the Apple iPhone App store... LOL...

[RingerSIX]

Keep spewing you phony POS! Keep bringing your brand of “harmony” to FR. I don’t know you from Jack, but I know your kind very well, and here’s a newsflash... my dislike of you has nothing to do with a brand of computer.

[Star Traveler]

How about some other good news from Apple to cheer you up... :-)

---

Apple’s iTunes captures 69 percent of digital music sold

By Jim Dalrymple
AUGUST 18, 2009, 6:44 AM PT

According to a new report from market research firm NPD, Apple’s iTunes Store leads all digital retailers in music sales, capturing 69 percent of the market.

Looking strictly at the digital music market, Apple’s iTunes captured 69 percent of the market in the first half of 2009. Amazon came in second place with eight percent of the market.

Looking all music sold, Apple continues to lead with 25 percent of the market. Apple’s market share is based on unit volumes of music sold at retail and includes both physical CDs and paid digital downloads. In 2007 Apple’s overall market share for music sold was 14 percent and in 2008 it was 21 percent.

Russ Crupnick, vice president of entertainment industry analysis, said digital music sales will equal that of the physical CD by the end of 2010.

“The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple’s success in holding that market, has increased iTunes’s overall strength in the retail music category,” said Crupnick. “But the importance of the big box retailers shouldn’t be dismissed, as long as the majority of music consumers continue to buy CDs.”

[Star Traveler]

iPhone Developer Caught in Alleged App Store Ratings Scam

Posted by Ray Basile
at 10:41 AM

The idea of shady developers willfully trying to deceive iPhone users by gaming the App Store ratings system is not an absurd concept. Patrick Timney, stumbled onto one such developer and what he unwittingly discovered resulted in Molinker, Inc. having all 1,011 of their iPhone apps yanked down from the App Store. Timney confirmed that the removal order came directly from Phil Schiller himself, Apple's senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing.

Patrick Timney, who jokingly refers to himself as a pro iPhoneographer, spends a fair share of his time obsessing on iPhone photography, but he's also made a serious hobby out of beta testing photo apps for some of the most highly rated apps populating the Photography category of the App Store. It was well over a week ago when one of Molinker's apps, NightCam Pro caught Timney's eye.

"I was honestly interested in their stuff, and I went out of my way to check out their programs," Patrick Timney told the iPhone Savior, referring to Molinker's photo apps. "I really liked their Lomo filter I saw in pictures. Just as I'm about to buy it, I realized something was wrong with the reviews."

As he began to sift through user reviews, Timney quickly realized that some 40 five star ratings were left for NightCam Pro, even though it had only been in the App Store less than 24 hours. The real oddity Patrick noticed, was that most of the users left one sentence reviews containing poorly written English, like this one from IOve u;

"This app is quite good, I can not stop playing it. So much love for it." my images wrote.

It became obvious that Molinker may have been posting false reviews to lure in unsuspecting buyers. Accomplishing this by allegedly offering free programs to users who agreed to give the apps five star ratings. Two of Molinker's photography apps had already made it into the Top 20 Paid Apps, with Color Magic being featured in Apple's Staff Favorites section on the front page of the App Store.

"I compiled every investigative thing I could find to prove my point, including screen shot after screen shot proving that the reviews were bogus," Timney said. "I personally emailed Phil Schiller. On Saturday afternoon he sent me an email from his home, telling me they just removed all the Molinker apps from the App Store along with the ratings."

"I figured Apple would investigate my claims, but not yank every app Molinker had in the App Store, Patrick said. "I was speechless, I didn't think that was gonna happen."

You would have to be a tad naive to think that any new app receiving a huge slew of five star reviews gained that authentic feedback from giddy iPhone users. There are many quality apps that deserve such ratings and do often earn them one user at a time. But it's obvious when unscrupulous developers are stacking the deck with fat ratings fabricated by blind loyalists willing to mislead in the name of greed.

Molinker, Inc. just may become the unwitting poster child of such dubious practices, especially if alleged claims of ratings scamming permanently banishes the company from hawking their wares in the App Store. You can bet that the developer community is paying close attention to Apple's swift clean up efforts. The fact that Patrick Timney stumbled onto the App Store's seedy underbelly on his quest for the latest and greatest photo editing app, makes this story a delicious treat that's ready for prime-time television. 

I asked Patrick what advice he had for the zombie hordes of new developers lined up outside the App Store with a pickaxe in hand, awaiting their chance to stake a claim in the iPhone gold rush. I wasn't too surprised by his answer.

"Hard work and a quality product will always pay off," Timney said. "One of the biggest things I look for when I review photo apps is full resolution images. Full resolution is key, it's a big selling factor."

As it turns out, Molinker's NightCam Pro app, did not include full iPhone 3G resolution (1536 x 2048). The app topped out at 600 x 800 resolution when Molinker was caught flashing the full monty. Timney should know, he ended up buying the app just before it became extinct. Some guys have all the luck.

[Star Traveler]

Apple Bans a Thousand Apps Over Review Fraud

Written on December 08, 2009
by Charles Jade

A story that began 10 days ago with a blog posting at iPhoneography and a letter to Apple VP Phil Schiller has ended with Apple banning prolific developer Molinker from the App Store. The developer has been charged with review fraud (not to mention poor grammar).

Molinker developed a lot of travel apps, guides, currency conversion tools, translation software, as well as photo editing software. A few reviews from NightCam Pro can be seen above. Like other Molinker software, the reviews are good…a little too good.

A reader of iPhoneography, SCW, thought in the above example it was “a little odd that 42 of 44 U.S. reviews are poorly written & that all users have only written reviews for either All Molinker photography apps…or the same two apps.” Apparently, short, effusive, English-as-second-language reviews are common for Molinker apps. SCW goes further, too, asserting that it is likely the all-positive reviews are derived from apps redeemed with developer promo codes.

Seeing as Molinker has promptly disappeared from the App Store, this could very well be. As for the developer’s response, Appfreakblog contacted the company and received this reply:

Actually, we do not know what’s wrong so far. We had contacted Apple for such sudden changes, hope we can get quick response and actions from Apple.

Well, it appears Molinker got its wish, at least in terms of “quick response and actions,” though it’s not the first company to suffer a mass banning. Content aggregator Perfect Acumen was banned along with 900-plus apps in August for alleged copyright violation and other complaints. Going forward, it’s likely there will be more mass bannings if allegations regarding the use of promo codes and astroturfing reviews are found to be true.

While some will argue this is yet another “black eye” for the App Store, possibly with Schiller doing another interview defending the review process, maybe some new restrictions on promo codes, does it really matter? The App Store, backed by more than 60 million iPhone OS devices and counting, remains the place to be for developers of mobile applications. A thousand bans here or there just don’t add up to much next to that.

[RingerSIX]

How about some other good news from Apple to cheer you up... :-)

You miss the boat dude. I'm glad Apple is doing well, and I'm glad MS is doing well, and I hold a grudge against no man for making more money than myself. We're all making exactly what we're willing to work for, and getting exactly what we deserve.

What I don't like is people who insult perfect strangers based on what kind of computer they use. It's a sign of insecurity and classlessness.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

What I don't like is people who insult perfect strangers based on what kind of computer they use. It's a sign of insecurity and classlessness.

It's not my fault that Windows is trashware and that so many people have been fooled by it... :-)

But, Apple is helping them out, slowly and one-by-one...

[RingerSIX]

It's not my fault that Windows is trashware and that so many people have been fooled by it... :-)

Holy crap, you're worse than I imagined. I'll give you one more response, to which I will not respond, so that you can have the last word. Following that, if I hear from you again I'll bring the VK's down on you.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Following that, if I hear from you again I'll bring the VK's down on you.

“Do not post to me” - Repost

from Admin Moderator

---

We've received many requests from freepers requesting that other freepers not post to them. There are several problems with this.

1. It's impossible for us to enforce.
2. We don't have the time to enforce these requests.
3. We don't have the software to keep track of these requests.
4. Thick skin helps.
5. Ignore the poster, if you don't reply, they won't reply.

Free Republic does not need a bozo filter, bozo filters are for wimps.

---

I wouldn't even remember you after a day, anyway... LOL...

[Star Traveler]

Why Apple should keep a closer eye on prolific app store developers

In the most recent example of a developer attempting to milk Apple customers out
of their hard earned money, a Chinese-based development company named
Molinker engaged in a scheme to artificially inflate the number of positive
reviews that appeared alongside many of their apps, which altogether totaled
over 1,000.

By Yoni Heisler
Fri, 12/11/09 - 2:17am.

It's no secret that a well-reviewed and popular iPhone app can potentially net a developer hundreds of thousands of dollars.  But the potential to make a lot of money inevitably causes some less than honest developers to try and scam the iTunes App Store for monetary gain.  Scamming the iTunes App Store can take on a number of different forms, whether it be through creating knockoff applications or through sprinkling popular, but irrelevant, keywords throughout an app description.

In the most recent example of a developer attempting to milk Apple customers out of their hard earned money, a Chinese-based development company named Molinker engaged in a scheme to artificially inflate the number of positive reviews that appeared alongside many of their apps, which altogether total over 1,000.

The scary part about Molinker's insidious behavior is that it actually worked.  By trading promo codes in exchange for positive app reviews, a number of Molinker's applications actually did quite well on the iTunes charts, with one app in particular, ColorMagic, actually making it onto the "Staff Favorites" section on iTunes - which kind of makes you wonder if the listed apps really are staff favorites.

In any event, after a good samaritan noticed something fishy about a number of Molinker app reviews, he shot over an email to Phil Schiller informing him of the situation.  After looking into things, Schiller replied a few days later stating, "Yes, this developer's apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either."

While it's all well and good that Apple kicked Molinker's apps to the curb, the fact that this ruse went on for as long as it did suggests that there are some glaring holes in Apple's app review process. Shouldn't the fact that a single development company was able to release over 1,000 apps have raised some red flags?  Gameloft, by way of comparison, is a well-respected iPhone development house with an extensive catalogue of quality apps.  As it stands now, they currently have 93 apps available for download on iTunes, and that figure includes various versions of the same title.

Put simply, there's no way a development company could realistically release 1,000 quality apps in just a few months. In those types of circumstances, it's not unreasonable to assume that something fishy is going on and would make sense for Apple to keep close tabs on development companies whose actions should trigger some sort of internal alarm.

In a similar example, it wasn't that long ago that Apple kicked out one of the most prolific iPhone developers for creating apps that consistently made use of copyrighted images and media content without legal permission. The development team in question was led by Khalid Shakih, a developer out of Pakistan with 26 employees working under him.  Before getting kicked out of the app store, Shakih and his team released an astounding 943 iPhone applications, which comes out to 5 apps a day for each of the 250 days that Shakih's apps were available.

What's ridiculous is that Apple will ban apps for the silliest and most miniscule of things, yet they somehow go months without noticing an app development team with a pattern of subbing more apps than humanly seems possible - and apps with copyrighted material no less!

For as much flack as Apple receives over its app store rejections, it should also make a point to monitor potentially suspect developers even after an app has already been accepted into the app store.  Hopefully going forward, Apple will at least keep an eye out on developers who have hundreds of apps in play on iTunes.  Not only would this help keep out many of the blatant crapware and scamware apps that sometimes plague the app store, it would also help make app store browsing a more productive and enjoyable activity.