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.
“And an ad hominem attack gets what, do you suppose?”
I dunno, ask the mac weenies.
I don’t live in a major city. I’m on the outskirts of Richmond, VA. Just a stone’s throw across the James River where there’s an old cannon foundry.
None of the flame war on this thread was necessary, and you started it, for your own amusement. Have fun with that.
Well, just because you may not like the idea that Windows is trashware, doesn't mean it's a flamewar to call it that... :-)
And, I do notice that you're here... so I see you enjoy this thread, too.
Heck! I call Mohammed a pedophile, but I don't think that's starting a flamewar, but merely the truth of the matter....
I'm going to go find some grownups to talk to.
I dunno, ask the mac weenies.
I'll have you know that my mac weenie dogs are Macintosh afficionados... indeed... :-)
I know you already like Windows trashware but that doesn't make the Macintosh people weenies... doncha know...
I'm going to go find some grownups to talk to.
Y'all come on back ya-hear! ... when you get bored...
BBZZZTTTTT
They had 1011 apps... 1000 of them were travel guides for various locales... which may or may not have been any good... and one was a travel utility which included things like a flashlight, currency conversion calculator, etc., and the other 10 were cheesy photo manipulation apps that claimed the ability to simply and easily do for 99¢ what sophisticated expensive Photoshop filters did without spending a lot of time to do it or apps that simply over exposed the picture and claimed to be a virtual flash.
I can see why the guy who reported the fake testimonials was suspicious. I looked at their result pictures and didn't believe their claims either!
get lost... as if you aren’t already.
Yep, you guys start a fight, act like infants and then pretend to be offended.
No class
Methinks so too... :-)
Glad to provide you the opportunity.
You realize that by handling the Koran you are desecrating an Islamic holy symbol.
/sarc
I think the punishment is something like death or stoning or is it rape and stoning... Whatever it is, I'm sure they'll be extremely polite about it.
because you folks won’t quit posting to me
I only have about a quarter of those same aps.
Yeah, I don't know what to think about some people who have about ten pages of apps... I just say "Wow!"...
You realize that by handling the Koran you are desecrating an Islamic holy symbol.
Oh..., they're so lucky that it's an iPhone app... if it were a printed copy, I would keep it in the bathroom and dispose of it a page at a time, as I used the facilities... :-)
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.
I don’t know too many of the normal and average users. :)
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