REMOVED: Molinker – all apps (for fake reviews)
Since the start of the App Store, we’ve all known of developers who’ve spent a few thousand dollars buying multiple iTunes accounts to buy extra copies of their app – and push themselves into the top-25 charts. I’d heard rumours of crackdowns about 6 months ago, but here’s an example of a cheaper and subtler art, with Molinker putting 42 fake reviews on a product with only 2 genuine reviews:
EVERY Review except 2 of the 44+ are ALL FAKE 5 ★★★★★ reviews.
…
If you investigate ALL have ONLY reviewed ONLY Molinker apps. A little odd that 42 of 44 US reviews are poorly written & that all users have only written reviews for either All Molinker photography apps (giving 5 star reviews to 6-7 Molinker apps ONLY no other apps by any other developer) or the same 2 apps.
this developer has been expelled from the AppStore.
…
Phil Schiller replied confirming “Yes, this developer’s apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either”
1% of the App Store just disappeared
No, really.
Molinker had more than 1,000 apps on the App Store – http://www.iappphone.com/developer/296685157/Molinker/.
Gone, all gone. There are only 100,000 (approx) apps in the store right now, so that’s a 1% dent from this single incident.
Which makes you wonder: how many complaints had Apple already received about these people? Was this just a case of the final straw that tipped Apple’s hand? Obviously, when an outspoken VP of the company (Phil) gets an email on a subject like this, you just know that the reporter is going to have a field-day if nothing gets done about it.
And … for how many of those apps had Molinker gone out and abused the App Store? Was it all of them (kind of hard to check, now that they’ve gone…)? If not, is Apple’s response reasonable?
PS: for the non-developers among you, note that Apple sends out revenue checks on a 1-3 month delay. With minimal effort, they could withhold/cancel up to 3 months revenue from Molinker, so this could be a serious blow financially as well as reputationally.
