Apple Says 1,000 Fraudulent Reviews Were Detected Across Two Accounts Owned by 'Dash' Developer [Update: Developer Responds]

ShinySteelRobot said:
Why didn't Apple simply come out and say this at the beginning? It would have saved a lot of angst among other developers who feared that their apps could be targeted by a malicious competitor.

Everyone was worried that a competing company could simply pay a firm in India or wherever to post favorable ads for your app, then *boom* your app is suddenly deleted from the App Store, and your competitors have less competition....all with no appeal process from Apple.

Sounds like this didn't happen. Whew.
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Because.. Apple doesn't make public who they ban unless the dev does so, it's common practice.. Why light a fire and be the bully? If the dev had not said anything, he wouldn't look like an idiot right now.

But no, he wanted attention, in hopes of bullying Apple. Well, now he's got it.. and in a bad way.
 
sutherland said:
Well Apple says he had two accounts, it could be only the apps on the second account were having reviews manipulated and only that account warned. If it wasn't really him, he wouldn't have known.

I think both parties need to release more details before I know who to believe.
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Well if that's true then you're accusing Apple of totally lying when they say they "worked with him."

I guess anything's possible, but I find that pretty unlikely.
 
farewelwilliams said:
yet, FDG Mobile Games continue to release apps with these 5 star reviews for the past few years.
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So, unless they have detected all fraud (which certainly is almost impossible), they should not start to take action against any fraud they have detected?

probably a huge money maker for Apple, so they don't look into these.
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Reality is way too complex that you could assume intentionality on most things. Assuming that any given observed effect is the result of somebody intending that effect is one of the biggest and most common mistake humans make. Life has become too complex for a human mind to understand, but the human mind tries to do so nevertheless and fixes complexity by assigning any effect to a person's (or group of persons') direct decision. That is the basic underlying psychological mechanism that leads to conspiracy theories.
 
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Good on Apple!

Dalrymple said it best:

"The integrity of the App Store is as important to Apple as it is to consumers. When you read a review on the store, you want to know that it’s real. In some cases, they can be the deciding factor on which app you purchase and download.

This is part of the reason we trust Apple and the App Store. They found inconsistencies in a developers account, tried to work with them to resolve the issue, and took decisive action to protect developers and customers when their attempts failed.

It seems to me Apple has given the developer every opportunity to change the behavior that started this whole mess. I don’t think we can ask any more from Apple in these types of situations. App Store fraud cannot be tolerated."

People should go back to the original post from last Thursday and revisit some of the awful comments lodged against Apple.
 
keysofanxiety said:
Because this isn't the sort of thing that should be publicised. Besides, it was the developer who made the fuss about it, not Apple. Now he's proven to have his hand in the cookie jar.

Didn't stop people previously jumping to conclusions, of course. And what conclusions they were.
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I disagree completely. These are the exact types of activities Apple should publicize. Whether popular or not, if this is true: "We will terminate developer accounts for ratings and review fraud, including actions designed to hurt other developers. This is a responsibility that we take very seriously, on behalf of all of our customers and developers." Apple should have 1. Booted them at least a year ago instead of allowing Dash's developer to reap revenue. A cynic would say Apple reaped as well. 2. Made the reasoning known to discourage any other devs from trying similar activities. 3. Realized "We looked into and found fraud" from Schiller wasn't going to be a sufficient answer when the guy was swearing innocence to anyone who'd listen.

I'm happy the truth came out. It still makes me ask: 2 years? Really?
 
I thought individual developers could only enroll in one Apple Developer account? Or was one of the accounts a company account? Perhaps for a consulting company developing apps for potentially less well behaving 3rd parties? If so, app developers have to be very careful who they work for!
 
solamar said:
Because.. Apple doesn't make public who they ban unless the dev does so, it's common practice.. Why light a fire and be the bully? If the dev had not said anything, he wouldn't look like an idiot right now.

But no, he wanted attention, in hopes of bullying Apple. Well, now he's got it.. and in a bad way.
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Provided what we've learned about the Dash developer is true (Apple is smart enough to know that taking arbitrary action against a developer could potentially have huge negative consequences for its app store), this guy and Kharma just had a head on collision.
 
Somehow reminded me of items on amazon offered for free or at reduced price for an "honest and unbiased" 5 star review. It's easy to get 5 stars nowadays.
 
I'm sure all the people vehemently insisting on the other thread that the developer was innocent and/or had been given no recourse will be along any moment to correct themselves. Lets wait and see...

waiting.jpg

Aaaaaaany moment now...
 
firewood said:
I thought individual developers could only enroll in one Apple Developer account? Or was one of the accounts a company account? Perhaps for a consulting company developing apps for potentially less well behaving 3rd parties? If so, app developers have to be very careful who they work for!
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This seems like a pretty plausible scenario. I want to believe the guy didn't do anything malicious, but as a user of the app I'll be extra angry if he doesn't have any further explanation.
 
keysofanxiety said:
Because this isn't the sort of thing that should be publicised. Besides, it was the developer who made the fuss about it, not Apple. Now he's proven to have his hand in the cookie jar.
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No, the existence of fake reviews does not prove that he paid to get them posted. This is particularly true if his other work involved a contract for a company, which might well have done "promotion" of their app that was entirely outside the scope of his relationship with them.

The entire notion of punishing a developer for fake reviews is silly. Unless the posts originated from a static IP belonging to the developer, it can't possibly meet the preponderance of evidence criterion required to win a civil suit, and worse, could easily be used offensively by a competitor to knock their conpetition out of the market. That alone is reason to seriously question the wisdom of such a policy.
 
ShinySteelRobot said:
Why didn't Apple simply come out and say this at the beginning? It would have saved a lot of angst among other developers who feared that their apps could be targeted by a malicious competitor.

Everyone was worried that a competing company could simply pay a firm in India or wherever to post favorable ads for your app, then *boom* your app is suddenly deleted from the App Store, and your competitors have less competition....all with no appeal process from Apple.

Sounds like this didn't happen. Whew.
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Legal risk. Also, it may be smarter to keep secret how they were caught so that other would-be cheaters are less likely to succeed.
 
mkldev said:
No, the existence of fake reviews does not prove that he paid to get them posted. This is particularly true if his other work involved a contract for a company, which might well have done "promotion" of their app that was entirely outside the scope of his relationship with them.

The entire notion of punishing a developer for fake reviews is silly. Unless the posts originated from a static IP belonging to the developer, it can't possibly meet the preponderance of evidence criterion required to win a civil suit, and worse, could easily be used offensively by a competitor to knock their conpetition out of the market. That alone is reason to seriously question the wisdom of such a policy.
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Apple said they have tried to work with the developer for over two years and the behavior continued. What more do you expect Apple to do? The developer is responsible for what takes place with the apps they publish. If they develop apps for a third party and that third party is responsible for the fraudulent reviews why didn't the developer put a stop to it two years ago when they were notified of the problem?
 
Damn shame, this. I like the Dash app, at least for Mac. I won't be buying through any channel but the App Store though. Shady dev is shady.

What makes a developer of a quality app behave this way? I could understand in the beginning thinking he had to use the tactics he believed his competition was using to keep level playing field, or perhaps thinking his actions were permitted when they weren't, but 2 years on, it's time to just stop with the games and follow the rules.

Yes, there's still room for this to be a misunderstanding, but I see no reason for Apple to make up a story out of whole cloth like this when they have absolute authority anyway.

[Edit: Listening to the conversation, if what I'm hearing is right, I can see where this may have gone sideways. This guy trusted someone he shouldn't have-- by creating an account for someone else, he took responsibility for that account, and Apple sees it all as one enterprise. Asking him to unlink them is a reasonable step-- disavow the fraudster, and we'll let you back in.

Also: "Hoping you're having a good time"?! This is why I hate being recorded-- say something stupid in awkward circumstances and it never goes away...]
 
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