5 ms·

iTunes accounts hacked by shady developer?

50 points by jeb 16y ago

c1sc0 16y ago
If apple would give more legitimate options of marketing apps in the AppStore devs would not stoop so low. There is no tracking, no in-store ads, nothing you can do besides playing the popularity game.
- megafotze 16y ago
  you could befriend some hipster a-bloggers that would cover your apps. (though I hate those bloggers)
  - c1sc0 16y ago
    And that's exactly what I hate about the AppStore: it's one big popularity contest. I've had one of my apps dip into the US Top 100 this weekend thanks to a random mention in the NY Times. While the attention is nice, I experience the lack of control over these kinds of media events as truly depressing.
    - goatforce5 16y ago
      So why not try and take control of the media events? This is why people have PR and Marketing staff... They go out and help create the stories and influence how the media report on product and services.
      - c1sc0 16y ago
        While that's nice if you have the cash to spend, for most indie devs that is just not an option. If you have suggestions on how to do this on the cheap, check out this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485783 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485783
megafotze 16y ago
apple will respond. they just need some time to take action. for mr nugyen it will end like for the last bunch of chinese guys who got all their apps thrown out, their licenses revoked and no money paid out.
- xinsight 16y ago
  Sure, take time to gather evidence, work with authorities and document the crime. But there is no good reason to leave those apps in the top seller lists once they've discovered the problem.
mellis 16y ago
This headline seems a bit misleading. The blog post is from today, describing a problem that the developer had brought to his attention yesterday. Perhaps this should be revised to the title of the post: "iTunes accounts hacked by shady developer?"?
- raganwald 16y ago
  Agreed: "You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it."
- jeb 16y ago
  I believe the situation has been like this for more than a week, I observed this more than a week ago, leading to the editorial slant. Some proof, take a look here: http://www.appexplorer.com/a/367996918/ http://www.appexplorer.com/a/367996918/ I actually started on June 14th, so about 3 weeks, without any reaction from Apple.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - MJR 16y ago
    Without any public reaction from Apple. I don't believe Apple comments cases regarding user accounts or developer accounts. So if they are investigating this, which for the sake of argument let's assume they are, the likely effect would be a sudden removal of these apps from the store. They need to do the appropriate research and investigation before they act.
colinplamondon 16y ago
As another Book developer, this is probably true. We have Free Books and Free Audiobooks, usually #1 and #2 paid book apps in the list. There is a bunch of fluctuation (competitors get featured, NYT plugs, etc), but the Top 20 is consistent. This is Weird with a capital W. However, this is probably a very limited account breach- below #10 volume in Books is pretty low, 200-300/day or so. Top 5 is much higher, so it's telling that the hack didn't get apps into the Top 5.
d0m 16y ago
Please stop with the App store in the first position of HN. There are so much better article and stuff to know about. Thanks.
jeb 16y ago
To calculate the daily income of this guy: $5 per app and he has 50 apps in the top 100. Daily sales are about 30 for each app, so total of 1500 sales per day. At $5, he's making $7500 a day. In the 3 weeks he has exploited this hack: $157 Thousand dollars. I wonder who is paying for that.
jimfl 16y ago
If the mechanism speculated in the article is true (app developer hacking iTunes accounts and buying his own apps), then a crime has been committed, and It would be irresponsible of Apple to "respond" (in a visible way) until proper steps had been taken.
- spot 16y ago
  The only proper steps they need to take are to backup the situation before tossing the fraudster and his impact. That should just take a couple of hours.
harshpotatoes 16y ago
I notice at the end of the article, the author states: "I hope someone at apple catches wind of this." Which makes me wonder, have any of us contacted apple yet, or are we all just hoping they'll notice this on their own?
- jeb 16y ago
  Apple is on the case, if you read the follow-up. Also, the last time something like this happened, Apple was very pro-active, fixed the issue really quickly. I think the problem was really just that Apple didn't know about it.
zweben 16y ago
Yesterday there was an app called "A mirror" at the top of the Top Grossing list selling for $499.99. The developer, SufPay, has no website listed and has only released one app. The app displays images of picture frames that are simply black in the center; that's it. It's by a different developer, but it definitely seems to be part of a similar scheme. I checked just now, and the price has changed to 99¢, but it's scary to think that a completely useless app 'sold' enough copies at $500 a pop to become the top grossing app on the app store.
- jeb 16y ago
  I think I've heard of this trick. What the developers do is that they make the app expensive ($500), then they purchase it with promo-codes, leading to it going into the top-grossing list. Then they switch it to 99cents, but since it takes some time for it to slide off the top-grossing list, a lot of people buy the app. This gives it enough sales to break into the top 100 of the category charts, and it will then use that momentum to rise up. Devs use such tricks - if you keep in touch with the forum, you'll see some crazy stuff people are doing to sell.
  - zweben 16y ago
    Well that's a bit of a relief. I thought they were actually charging $500 to unsuspecting account holders. You're right about people buying the app after it drops in price. When it was $500 it had two obviously fake 5/5 reviews. Now it has an additional 40 reviews, 1/3 of which are additional fake reviews, 2/3 of which are 1-star reviews shocked that their iPhone didn't magically turn reflective. sigh
draper 16y ago
1) Apple will definitely file a lawsuit against this rogue developer. 2) The rogue developer will never be allowed in ANY app store EVER. 3) Lost of credibility and reputation for the developer.

50 points by jeb 16y ago

c1sc0 16y ago

If apple would give more legitimate options of marketing apps in the AppStore devs would not stoop so low. There is no tracking, no in-store ads, nothing you can do besides playing the popularity game.

megafotze 16y ago
you could befriend some hipster a-bloggers that would cover your apps. (though I hate those bloggers)
- c1sc0 16y ago
  And that's exactly what I hate about the AppStore: it's one big popularity contest. I've had one of my apps dip into the US Top 100 this weekend thanks to a random mention in the NY Times. While the attention is nice, I experience the lack of control over these kinds of media events as truly depressing.
  - goatforce5 16y ago
    So why not try and take control of the media events? This is why people have PR and Marketing staff... They go out and help create the stories and influence how the media report on product and services.
    - c1sc0 16y ago
      While that's nice if you have the cash to spend, for most indie devs that is just not an option. If you have suggestions on how to do this on the cheap, check out this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485783 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485783

megafotze 16y ago

apple will respond. they just need some time to take action. for mr nugyen it will end like for the last bunch of chinese guys who got all their apps thrown out, their licenses revoked and no money paid out.

xinsight 16y ago
Sure, take time to gather evidence, work with authorities and document the crime. But there is no good reason to leave those apps in the top seller lists once they've discovered the problem.

mellis 16y ago

This headline seems a bit misleading. The blog post is from today, describing a problem that the developer had brought to his attention yesterday. Perhaps this should be revised to the title of the post: "iTunes accounts hacked by shady developer?"?

raganwald 16y ago
Agreed: "You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it."
jeb 16y ago
I believe the situation has been like this for more than a week, I observed this more than a week ago, leading to the editorial slant. Some proof, take a look here: http://www.appexplorer.com/a/367996918/ http://www.appexplorer.com/a/367996918/ I actually started on June 14th, so about 3 weeks, without any reaction from Apple.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- MJR 16y ago
  Without any public reaction from Apple. I don't believe Apple comments cases regarding user accounts or developer accounts. So if they are investigating this, which for the sake of argument let's assume they are, the likely effect would be a sudden removal of these apps from the store. They need to do the appropriate research and investigation before they act.

colinplamondon 16y ago

As another Book developer, this is probably true. We have Free Books and Free Audiobooks, usually #1 and #2 paid book apps in the list. There is a bunch of fluctuation (competitors get featured, NYT plugs, etc), but the Top 20 is consistent. This is Weird with a capital W. However, this is probably a very limited account breach- below #10 volume in Books is pretty low, 200-300/day or so. Top 5 is much higher, so it's telling that the hack didn't get apps into the Top 5.

d0m 16y ago

Please stop with the App store in the first position of HN. There are so much better article and stuff to know about. Thanks.

jeb 16y ago

To calculate the daily income of this guy: $5 per app and he has 50 apps in the top 100. Daily sales are about 30 for each app, so total of 1500 sales per day. At $5, he's making $7500 a day. In the 3 weeks he has exploited this hack: $157 Thousand dollars. I wonder who is paying for that.

jimfl 16y ago

If the mechanism speculated in the article is true (app developer hacking iTunes accounts and buying his own apps), then a crime has been committed, and It would be irresponsible of Apple to "respond" (in a visible way) until proper steps had been taken.

spot 16y ago
The only proper steps they need to take are to backup the situation before tossing the fraudster and his impact. That should just take a couple of hours.

harshpotatoes 16y ago

I notice at the end of the article, the author states: "I hope someone at apple catches wind of this." Which makes me wonder, have any of us contacted apple yet, or are we all just hoping they'll notice this on their own?

jeb 16y ago
Apple is on the case, if you read the follow-up. Also, the last time something like this happened, Apple was very pro-active, fixed the issue really quickly. I think the problem was really just that Apple didn't know about it.

zweben 16y ago

Yesterday there was an app called "A mirror" at the top of the Top Grossing list selling for $499.99. The developer, SufPay, has no website listed and has only released one app. The app displays images of picture frames that are simply black in the center; that's it. It's by a different developer, but it definitely seems to be part of a similar scheme. I checked just now, and the price has changed to 99¢, but it's scary to think that a completely useless app 'sold' enough copies at $500 a pop to become the top grossing app on the app store.

jeb 16y ago
I think I've heard of this trick. What the developers do is that they make the app expensive ($500), then they purchase it with promo-codes, leading to it going into the top-grossing list. Then they switch it to 99cents, but since it takes some time for it to slide off the top-grossing list, a lot of people buy the app. This gives it enough sales to break into the top 100 of the category charts, and it will then use that momentum to rise up. Devs use such tricks - if you keep in touch with the forum, you'll see some crazy stuff people are doing to sell.
- zweben 16y ago
  Well that's a bit of a relief. I thought they were actually charging $500 to unsuspecting account holders. You're right about people buying the app after it drops in price. When it was $500 it had two obviously fake 5/5 reviews. Now it has an additional 40 reviews, 1/3 of which are additional fake reviews, 2/3 of which are 1-star reviews shocked that their iPhone didn't magically turn reflective. sigh

draper 16y ago

1) Apple will definitely file a lawsuit against this rogue developer. 2) The rogue developer will never be allowed in ANY app store EVER. 3) Lost of credibility and reputation for the developer.