Posted on 12/07/2009 2:45:16 PM PST by Star Traveler
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.
I’ve got several Bible apps, one Koran app (just so I can show some people what the Koran actually says... LOL...), one game (solitaire), a “Zippo Lighter” app (cute...), a currency app, a dog whistle app, the program Epocrates, 1Password, one silly app for a “light” (just shows a white screen... LOL...), and then Apple’s app for controlling you iTunes program on your computer via the iPhone...
That’s about it for me... :-)
better yet go have a love in with your liberal friends and acquire aids.
Just because you like to do those things, don't project them on me... :-)
Don't you think that's a bit harsh?
Macintosh/Apple people know it's true... :-)
;)
That stuff is almost as bad as that bozo.
I think it was supposed to be. There wasn't anything in the article to stir up a Win/Mac flame war, so it had to be done out of band.
Blog Review Generator
That developer must have used something like that... LOL...
Just shows how insecure mac users are.
So you think I am wrong to be offended at being labeled a criminal?
There wasn't anything in the article to stir up a Win/Mac flame war, so it had to be done out of band.
Oh..., it would have started without any help from me... LOL...
Those Windows people/developers come in regularly and do that anyway. I just supplied the "right direction" for the comments... :-)
I'm warned to beware of false prophets.
The interesting thing would be to see how they codistribute with use of the Scofield Reference Edition and Dispensationalism.
Now, this is the first time in my 10 years of posting -- that I've ever had the opportunity for commenting on two of my favorite subjects in one thread... LOL... (for you who don't know... that's Apple and Dispensationalism...)
LOL...
Dictionary
Wikipedia
Grill Guide
TinyKitchen
Tickets Direct
Sherwin Williams ColorSnap
Pandora
CNBC RT
Whole Foods
CBS Sports & NBC Sports
Emergency Radio (Ham and scanner feeds)
Adobe Sketch Book
Thomas Paine Common Sense
Shakespeare's works
Bible
RC Heli Lite
Fox Business
The US Constitution
The Federalist Papers
MyGovernment (track your rep and bills)
Net Utility
Dog Whistle
UMMAS Medical Info
WebMD
PNC Mobile
1Password
R.Racing GTI
Sharpshooter
EuchreLite
BlackJack
I think that's probably the most useless phrase in the entire net lexicon.
Probably... [and the next most useless...] :-)
I see I’m gonna have some checkin’ to do... :-)
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