"I slipped, fell and accidentally employed my relative to fake reviews. I'm innocent!"
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Apple Says 1,000 Fraudulent Reviews Were Detected Across Two Accounts Owned by 'Dash' Developer [Update: Developer Responds]
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"I slipped, fell and accidentally employed my relative to fake reviews. I'm innocent!"
LOL. Must have been my dog walking all over the keyboard leaving 1000s of fake reviews.
So Apple knew about it 2 years ago... and allowed the fraud for an additional 2 years at the expense of the other developers. This reminds me of those FBI investigations - "We watched this pedophile ring for the last 5 years..." Well, what the heck were you waiting for?
No, the Constitution only protects you against the government, not private parties. You have no 1st Amendment rights vis-a-vis Apple or anyone else not acting on behalf of the government.
what do you think i've been doing for the past several months? it's obvious Apple isn't listening to me so I have to post this in high profile articles.
If they linked these accounts, notification should have been to all linked accounts if said link had repercussions for both accounts.
It's also unclear if the fraudalant reviews from the linked account were involved fraud for the developer or someone else.
no, what i'm saying is that FDG has been doing this for at least 3 years. apple said this dash case has only lasted 2 years.
It kind of depends. I am not sure if there is an applicable federal law if this was a two party call. However, if they are both in California it would be illegal without notification. Only 11 states require two-party consent though. It is safe to assume at least half the call was in California. I don't even know if he is in the US.
One thing is clear. Apple was trying to work with him and he did not do himself any favors.
Yeah, bad call there, too. Of course I'm not really sure where this guy lives. His accent sounds Eastern European (Romanian?), so he may not be living in the US. That sounded like a Skype call... So it may not have been truly illegal, but it didn't help ingratiate him to Apple, I'm sure.
I'm getting the sense of someone young and impulsive who feels he's riding a wave of public support against The System. Basically the archetype of every good developer in their twenties...
We only have his word that it didn't at this point. His story that he did not find out about it until it happened has always seemed to be ridiculous.
Normally fake reviews are bad but considering Apple Store Store is a virtual ghost town any reviews would be beneficial. For example, comparing some of the best apps on both iOS and Android. Prompt 2 SSH client on Apple App Store has 258 total reviews compared to JuiceSSH on Google Play Store with 40,099 reviews. Infuse Pro 4 for iOS has 750 reviews compared to MX Player Pro for Android with 36,969. VLC for iOS with 3,146 reviews vs VLC for Android with 572,634 reviews.
Actually in the audio it states roughly "based on credit card purchase for the developer account and test equipment."
That is I think a fairly weak nexus to do something so drastic.
You think it is weak that his credit card was used to pay for the account where the fraudulent reviews took place. What would you consider strong?
If a developer volunteers to test apps of another developer, either to help out or as a paid consulting gig, does that cause the two developer accounts to be somehow linked in Apple's mind? That's going to cause a lot of iOS developers and app test consultants to refuse to test anyone else's apps unless they know the developer of that app *really* well.
He's so dumb. Its illegal to record a conversation with a party located in California and not have consent of that party. He's so screwed and not getting his account reinstated.
I buy things for my parents on my credit card on a regular basis.
Sure, context matters.
But, I wouldn't see buying someone who perhaps aspires to be a developer the proper entry level account as a strong nexus. I worked for a school and occasionally bought software for students. I never imagined I could be held legally liable for it.
I'm pretty sure you need the consent of the party based on where that party is located. So if you have a cross-state conversation, you have to obey the stricter of the laws. Apple is presumably calling from Cupertino, CA so he needs consent of them to record it.
What does testing someone's app have to do with fraudulent reviews? Much less 1000 fraudulent reviews?
Having just listened to the recording of his phone call with Apple I have come to 3 conclusions:
1. Apple have bent over backwards to give this guy a chance to reinstate his developer account. The guy on the call was extremely professional and fair.
2. The developer's tone during that call was a bit offhand and far from appreciative that the SVP of Marketing of the largest company in the world actually cared enough to make this call happen!
3. Recording the call with Apple and making it public was the final nail in the coffin. He can probably expect a demand from Apple to take down that recording immediately and in my opinion has little to no chance of ever doing business with Apple again. Phil Schiller will be furious and rightly so.
THE END
1. Apple have bent over backwards to give this guy a chance to reinstate his developer account. The guy on the call was extremely professional and fair.
2. The developer's tone during that call was a bit offhand and far from appreciative that the SVP of Marketing of the largest company in the world actually cared enough to make this call happen!
3. Recording the call with Apple and making it public was the final nail in the coffin. He can probably expect a demand from Apple to take down that recording immediately and in my opinion has little to no chance of ever doing business with Apple again. Phil Schiller will be furious and rightly so.
THE END
Because it's not their place to share that private information. It would have been a violation of the developer program TOS and privacy policy.
Some of the posts I'm reading here (after the new blog post) are just awful.
Apple half arsely did the right thing, but the dev never knew about this. There's no reason for the dev to think his account would be considered 'linked' because of the same credit card. Dash never received fake app reviews and Apple aren't saying he did ... in fact, Apple has changed it stance quite a bit from the start of this to that phone call.
That phone call is obviously reminding him who is boss here, whilst working along with for PR and trying to make Apple look good. Now, Apple are doing the right thing by making sure the App Store is fair, but they somehow messed this up.
Some of the posts I'm seeing though: Just to be clear, he did nothing wrong.
Apple half arsely did the right thing, but the dev never knew about this. There's no reason for the dev to think his account would be considered 'linked' because of the same credit card. Dash never received fake app reviews and Apple aren't saying he did ... in fact, Apple has changed it stance quite a bit from the start of this to that phone call.
That phone call is obviously reminding him who is boss here, whilst working along with for PR and trying to make Apple look good. Now, Apple are doing the right thing by making sure the App Store is fair, but they somehow messed this up.
Some of the posts I'm seeing though: Just to be clear, he did nothing wrong.
It's honestly not that baffling when you see how quick people are to call or compare Apple to Nazis/Third Reich/Hitler over this event.