{"id":51611,"date":"2026-04-16T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51611"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:53:19","slug":"the-app-store-scammer-strikes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/16\/the-app-store-scammer-strikes-back\/","title":{"rendered":"The App Store Scammer Strikes Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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First, Virus Protection for Phone is back in the App Store<\/a>! The App Store URL is the same, and the developer is the same, Virtual Advisors Limited. The app version history shows a large gap, with version 1.8 released in February 2025, before my blog post, and version 1.9 released just a few days ago. In retrospect, I have no way of knowing whether Apple<\/em> removed the app from the App Store. The notoriously secretive corporation certainly didn’t make any kind of statement. It’s possible that the app developer voluntarily unpublished the app after noticing the bad publicity.<\/p>\n

The second update to the story is that the same scammer appears to have a second scam app in the App Store iPhone Cleaner - Virus Protect<\/a> under a different developer account, Ranger Bookie Investments LLC. How did I discover this second app? The same way I discovered the first app: an advertisement on a sketchy video streaming website.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

According to AppFigures<\/a>, iPhone Cleaner - Virus Protect had 65,000 downloads and an estimated net revenue of $310,000 worldwide over the last month. That’s more money than I make in a year! I guess crime does pay.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

For example, curiously, neither developer (they’re surely one and the same developer) identifies as a trader in the European Union, despite the fact that both apps have In-App Purchases.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Nicolas Magand<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Looking at the Top Free Apps list on the Mac App Store as I write this line, the 6th most popular app is called “AI Chatbot · Ask AI Anything 5.2<\/a>”. It sits right after Microsoft Excel and CapCut, and before Microsoft PowerPoint. No, this app — unrelated to OpenAI — is not fishy at all (!) and the Mac App Store is very safe. The 12th most popular app on the list is “HP: Print and Support<\/a>”. Great, great stuff.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Juli Clover<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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A fake Mac app designed to look like the real thing snuck past Apple’s app review team, costing users $9.5 million in cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

According to CoinDesk<\/em><\/a>, a fake macOS version of the Ledger Live crypto wallet app scammed people into handing over access to their cryptocurrency wallets. More than 50 people fell victim to the fake app between April 7 and April 13.<\/p>\n

Ledger has an official Mac app, but it is distributed via the Ledger website and not through the Mac App Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

David Price<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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With unhappy timing, news of this scam broke in the same week as the banning of Freecash, as reported by Macworld’s sister site TechCrunch<\/a>. In adverts, Freecash offered to pay users to scroll on TikTok, but this was a flimsy veil for its real purpose: harvesting sensitive data. By installing and running the app, users were giving up data about anything from their religion to their sexual orientation, which the makers happily sold on to third parties.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

That decision would appear to indicate that Freecash does not, contrary to its makers’ protestations, meet the standards of Apple’s App Store. (The Android app is still showing up for me in Google search, but the URL it directs to no longer works. Presumably, then, it’s been kicked off Google Play too.) But once again, it’s unclear why Apple’s vetting team wasn’t able to spot this shortcoming before<\/em> welcoming the app on to the company’s official storefront. Or why it took so long to take action against an app whose murkier practices had been highlighted by journalists months previously.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

This week has been unusually bad, but stories of this sort don’t come as a surprise any more. The App Store of 2026 is absolutely stuffed with slop, scams, and clones, propped up by an ecosystem of fake reviews pushing undeserving apps to the top of the charts. Phil Schiller was complaining about “insane” scam apps<\/a> 14 years ago, and to the casual eye it’s difficult to see that things have got any better.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

If running an app store is too much trouble, close it down. If comprehensive vetting is impractical, stop pretending the App Store is completely safe. (And definitely stop scaremongering about sideloading.) If you can’t make the App Store a truly reliable resource for good, safe, legitimate software, then give iPhone users the freedom to install from other places. Or just stop pretending the App Store monopoly is about anything other than revenue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Price calls the App Store “rotten” — is there any other word? — and says Apple should “give iPhone users the freedom to install from other places. Or just stop pretending the App Store monopoly is about anything other than revenue” if it cannot effectively police its wares. I imagine Apple would argue it enforces its rules all the time<\/a> and sometimes things just get through.<\/p>\n\n

But that kind of response only reveals the scale of the store and, consequently, the problem: nobody can effectively govern this many items, especially when they are all user-submitted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Three scam apps I mentioned in my blog post are still in the crApp Store:<\/p>\n

Stronix VPN, Reliable VPN, Privacy Pro VPN<\/p>\n

Two mentioned apps are gone, but one already left and came back, so we don’t know if it was Apple or the developer who removed them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n