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1000 apps pulled from App Store after review scam

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Dec 2009 1:47 User comments (3)

1000 apps pulled from App Store after review scam

Apple has removed 1000 apps from the iPhone App Store after it was discovered that the developer Molinker was using a review scam to give its own apps 5-star reviews.
The developer has now been banned from the App Store and had all of its 1000 apps removed. Molinker had created about 1 percent off all App Store apps.

The issue was brought to Apple's attention by reader "SCW" of the iPhoneography blog.

SCW wrote: "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."



The reader also says that the reviews were all written in the same short, disjointed style.

Phil Schiller of Apple confirmed this week that the apps had been removed and the developer blocked. "Yes, this developer's apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no long appear either."

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3 user comments

18.12.2009 14:39

if the Apps were any good this kind of sucks 1,000 is a lot of apps

28.12.2009 23:36

Apple is bound and determined on losing customers it gained during the Vista debacle. Now that Win7 has been released there is no reason to ever consider buying an Apple product. For music I use a 32 track recorder. The iphone was cool when it was first released. Now it's just another smartphone.
Hitler Jobs wants to rule the world. Heil Jobs!

Soon Apple will but yet again dip below the double digit number of users Apple fan boys are used to.

311.12.2009 12:15

At first i thought Apple was removing 1000 apps that scam your money, lol. They're just removing the apps that have artificially boosted rating.

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