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I'm fascinated by the social cost of these spam accounts and apps. Who is installing these apps? What are the spammers getting out of them? Who is writing them?

I'm fascinated by the social cost of these spam accounts and apps. Who is installing these apps? What are the spammers getting out of them? Who is writing them? How much economic damage is being done by these apps, if you tried to sum it up? To be honest, when I look at the mobile ecosystem, it seems to me that a pretty large fraction of the "legitimate" apps are barely better than spam. Most of the best freemium and gatcha games are pretty terrible, and I can only imagine how bad the bad stuff is. Fortunately, there's a filter that can exclude free apps on Google Play. Seems to me, especially in the games department, it behooves you to turn that on. If you do, you generally won't be affected by psuedo spam or actual spam.

II2II 5y ago
I would go further and state that many legitimate apps are not any better than some spam. While they may present these apps as providing some sort of service, they also collect data that they have no right to. That being said, many illegitimate apps are based upon pure misrepresentation. It sounds like that is the type of app that Google's press release was targeting, rather than the nebulous area where most people have differing opinions on what is legit or otherwise.
razakel 5y ago
>What are the spammers getting out of them? How did you think gift card scammers cashed them out?
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  Never thought about it, although now I can see the possibility. That said, is the aggressive wording of your comment really necessary?
  - NullPrefix 5y ago
    Fake politeness is a form of disrespect too.
    - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
      Rude and fake polite are not the only two choices. We should try for genuine politeness and charity.
      - salawat 5y ago
        >How do you think gift card scammers cashed them out? There wasn't anything rude there. Merely pointing out an overlooked facet. Rude would be sprinkling in "What are you, daft? Never been out of your bubble?", or a similar insult on the end. Unfortunately, the money laundering scene being what it is today, I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few mobile games were nothing but thinly veiled links in a laundering scheme. I certainly see enough game clones nowadays that are nothing but ad delivery frameworks with a thin veneer of genuine artistic credibility tacked on top that I can see games have shifted from being true labors of love to financial instruments. The Socratic method of questioning is not rude. It won't make you many friends; but it isn't rude.
Loughla 5y ago
Even looking at just the paid games still has spam, or spam-lite I suppose. This next sentence might sound too cynical, but it's real for me - Are there any good mobile games that aren't just a mindless-repetitive-task, engineered dopamine drip, with micro-transactions?
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  Sure! Cultist simulator, Civilization, Kingdom Rush, Bad North. Many other good examples. Now, if you're just talking about games that are available on mobile platforms only, then the crowd gets substantially thinner. I theorize that this is because if you have a game that can compete on PC, you'll put it there, and not have it be mobile only. And there are precious few gaming styles that work best on a tiny mobile phone screen.

II2II 5y ago

I would go further and state that many legitimate apps are not any better than some spam. While they may present these apps as providing some sort of service, they also collect data that they have no right to. That being said, many illegitimate apps are based upon pure misrepresentation. It sounds like that is the type of app that Google's press release was targeting, rather than the nebulous area where most people have differing opinions on what is legit or otherwise.

razakel 5y ago

>What are the spammers getting out of them? How did you think gift card scammers cashed them out?

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
Never thought about it, although now I can see the possibility. That said, is the aggressive wording of your comment really necessary?
- NullPrefix 5y ago
  Fake politeness is a form of disrespect too.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
    Rude and fake polite are not the only two choices. We should try for genuine politeness and charity.
    - salawat 5y ago
      >How do you think gift card scammers cashed them out? There wasn't anything rude there. Merely pointing out an overlooked facet. Rude would be sprinkling in "What are you, daft? Never been out of your bubble?", or a similar insult on the end. Unfortunately, the money laundering scene being what it is today, I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few mobile games were nothing but thinly veiled links in a laundering scheme. I certainly see enough game clones nowadays that are nothing but ad delivery frameworks with a thin veneer of genuine artistic credibility tacked on top that I can see games have shifted from being true labors of love to financial instruments. The Socratic method of questioning is not rude. It won't make you many friends; but it isn't rude.

Loughla 5y ago

Even looking at just the paid games still has spam, or spam-lite I suppose. This next sentence might sound too cynical, but it's real for me - Are there any good mobile games that aren't just a mindless-repetitive-task, engineered dopamine drip, with micro-transactions?

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
Sure! Cultist simulator, Civilization, Kingdom Rush, Bad North. Many other good examples. Now, if you're just talking about games that are available on mobile platforms only, then the crowd gets substantially thinner. I theorize that this is because if you have a game that can compete on PC, you'll put it there, and not have it be mobile only. And there are precious few gaming styles that work best on a tiny mobile phone screen.