Jeff Johnson, developer of the popular StopTheMadness Safari extension, has said that “obvious” App Store ratings fraud is going undetected by Apple despite the company’s claims to review listings.

He said that although he doesn’t go proactively looking for App Store fraud, he does encounter it rather frequently, citing the latest example …

Apple has aggressively resisted every antitrust move involving third-party app stores or sideloaded apps for iPhones, only relenting when forced to do so by law. Even then, it continues to fight its corner.

The company claims it isn’t motivated by money, but rather a desire to protect iPhone users from malware. Last year, for example, the company claims to have prevented over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions.

Since launching in 2008, the App Store has been a safe and trusted place for users and a vibrant marketplace for developers to grow their businesses around the world. In the last five years, the App Store has protected users by preventing over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions, including over $2 billion in 2024 alone, according to Apple’s annual App Store fraud analysis.

A number of developers, however, have taken issue with claims that the App Store is a safe place, pointing to a number of multi-million dollar scams. Just last month, three customers sued Apple after a fake wallet app wiped out their Bitcoin.

App Store ratings fraud has long been a major problem, with companies in China renting out iPhone farms in order to download apps and give them five-star ratings.

Developer Jeff Johnson, best known for his StopTheMadness Safari extension, pointed to the latest example of what he describes as “pervasive and obvious” review fraud in App Store listings. He points to TabControl Extension as the latest example.

He said this was the #12 top paid Safari extension in the US Mac App Store when he happened across it, and that it uses a fake screenshot that appears to be AI-generated.

Another thing you should note in the fake screenshot is the “4.9 out of 5” stars, giving the impression that this is the App Store user rating of the app […] The use of App Store screenshots to present false claims is a common tactic of scams that I’ve noted before. When a developer submits an app to the App Store, Apple reviews not only the app but also the App Store listing and metadata, including screenshots, and the claims in the screenshots of scam apps are often obviously ridiculous, yet Apple approves them anyway […]

Apple claims that its App Store protects users from dishonest developers. If App Store review is not doing this work, then what the hell are they doing? Practically speaking, App Store review didn’t even need to go as far down the rabbit hole as I did. The “4.9 out of 5” stars in the App Store screenshot should have been a red flag. Apple has a record of all the ratings and reviews in all the countries, so they know this is false advertising. I didn’t have to download the damn app to know already that the developer is attempting fraud.

As he notes, if a developer is scamming you in order to sell you the app in the first place, you certainly don’t want to trust them with your browsing data.

It will of course never be possible to detect every instance of App Store fraud, but fake reviews are ridiculously common, and examples like this should be so absurdly obvious to Apple that it’s hard to understand how the extension was ever approved.

At the very least, Apple needs to implement a system where hitting any of the top rankings automatically triggers a new and more rigorous review of an app and the claims that it makes.

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Image: 9to5Mac/Apple/Jeff Johnson/Sincerely Media