Apple has been championing the security of the iPhone ecosystem, which is said to be more stable than Android. But iPhone users are also haunted by the threat of harmful and harmful applications circulating in the App Store.
In March 2021, Avast discovered 133 fraudulent apps in the App Store with a total of 500 million downloads and already grossed USD 365 million. As it turned out a year later, VPNCheck reported that more than 60% of those apps were still active on the App Store.
The latest VPNCheck report found that there were 84 fraudulent iOS apps that not only survived in the App Store but also managed to steal more than USD 100 million from their victims, as quoted from TechSpot, Tuesday (19/7/2022).
VPNCheck uses the list shared by Avast to be rechecked one by one using Sensor Tower data. They found that in the period of June 2022 alone dozens of fraudulent applications had been downloaded 7.2 million times.
In total, this fraudulent iOS app rakes in $8.6 million per month from its victims. Based on the data, VPNCheck estimates the 84 rogue apps earn about USD 103.2 million per year from the App Store.
For context, the App Store earns about $60 billion a year in sales of apps and games, which makes $100 million a year in sales from fraudulent apps seem minuscule.
But Apple takes a commission of up to 30% for every sale of an app on the App Store. So you could say Apple gets revenue from applications that harm users.
Unfortunately, these applications are difficult to detect by the App Store review system because they are in the form of fleeceware. Unlike malware, fleeceware does not take over the user's device or steal data of any kind so the danger is not immediately visible to the user.
Fleeceware applications usually offer a free trial or free trial, when it expires the user will be asked to pay a monthly subscription fee or purchase the application.
Fraud schemes like this can work because many victims usually forget or don't know how to unsubscribe, or think that simply uninstalling the app is enough to unsubscribe.
Most of the fraudulent iOS apps on the VPNCheck list are entertainment apps, photo or video editors, games, scanners, utilities like flashlight and VPN, and more.
Since the 84 apps shared by VPNCheck are too long to list here, here are the top 10 top-rated iOS apps with the most downloads during the May 2022 period:
ToonApp Cartoon Photo Editor
Beat maker pro - DJ Drum Pad
ScanGuru: PDF Document Scanner
Photo Collage - Collageable
Facelab - Face Editor & Beauty
Mood Balance: Self Care Tracker
Lift: Story Maker
edjing Mix - dj app
Nebula: Horoscope & Astrology
Astroline: The Daily Horoscope