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.
Further research... here is a list from a third party resource on Molinker apps... they DO have a lot. Most of them seem to be travel help stuff.
BZZZZZTTTT
Damn! That looks look a full boat!
I only have about a quarter of those same aps.
It’s cool to have a silly stupid app like that... but if one were caught “in a jam” and didn’t have the app, but wanted to place a little light on the situation — just go to Safari and open a new page, a blank one and it will be all white and give you just about as much light.
But, the “app” is more fun... :-)
Has anyone on this thread expressed their appreciation for your efforts? No? Maybe there's a reason for that.
Ahhh..., thanks for checking...
Has anyone on this thread expressed their appreciation for your efforts? No? Maybe there's a reason for that.
Well, heck! If I waited for approval/appreciation of my posts... my post count would be more like 24 posts in the last 10 years -- instead of the almost 26,000... LOL...
Aww another mac user is offended when someone refuses to take the BS that was posted. No, don’t chastise star boy for his needless insults. Go for one of the targets of his infantile statements.
yep that makes sense
26,000 LOL's.
Some legacy.
It’s been a fun ten years, to be sure... :-)
You can learn a lot about a person by what they do for entertainment.
Aww another mac user is offended when someone refuses to take the BS that was posted.
Well, I'm sorry if you think it's BS... I mean there's software, there's shareware, there's trialware, there's freeware -- and then there's trashware... Just because Windows is in the last category, don't be offended and call it BS... :-)
What an ass.
You can learn a lot about a person by what they do for entertainment.
Free Republic is the most fun spot on the Internet that I know... :-)
I wouldn't be anywhere else...
BBZZZZTTTTT
And an ad hominem attack gets what, do you suppose?
What an ass.
Now, I didn't mention Steve Ballmer, but since you've just mentioned him... I'll give you how he acts like a donkey in a developer's group... :-)
It does give you and audience.
It does give you and audience.
But not bigger than your audience... :-)
None of the flame war on this thread was necessary, and you started it, for your own amusement. Have fun with that.
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