Community Warning: Fake iPhone App (Scams)

Question

Level 1

30 points

Community Warning: Fake iPhone App (Scams)

I made a few videos on youtube and got spammed by this company that sells an app called iWifihack http://iwifihack.net/

Their method of payment is by completing surveys and doing offers. I knew it was bogus to begin with but I wanted to see what length they took to package a fake app.

basically, iTunes didn't recognise it as a valid IPA file. Obviously it is not available at the app store but can Apple take action? I would like to bring this to the attention, not sure if they would care or be able to do anything though

They have atleast 133 youtube accounts at any given time that spam youtube, along with threatening users and attempting to report decent accounts for false claims.

Also, has anyone heard of others. I am interested in learning of them.

Regards

White Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Apr 28, 2011 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Apr 28, 2011 12:30 PM in response to annoyed123

Apple can do nothing about such apps unless the developer/site is inappropriately using Apple trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property. Otherwise any action would have to be taken directly against the company by a defrauded user, assuming that there are indeed grounds for legal action, or by a government agency if the purported cracking of passwords is actual, that being illegal in many jurisdictions.

BTW, apps that don't come through the iTunes Store require the iPhone to be jailbroken. So it's quite possible that the app would load were you to jailbreak your iPhone, though I absolutely would not risk my iPhone by installing any such app as it could well be malware of the first order.

Regards.

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Answer 2

annoyed123 Author

Level 1

30 points

Apr 28, 2011 12:35 PM in response to varjak paw

Ah they claim on the website that it doesn't need to be jailbroken.

On the website it says it was made on a mac with the apple logo. You know the iweb templates. It was a packaged IPA file which means it was allegedly made with xcode.

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Answer 3

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Apr 28, 2011 12:43 PM in response to annoyed123

The instructions says that you have to SSH into your iPhone, and that requires jailbreaking, to the best of my knowledge.

Whether or not the app requires jailbreaking, the use of the "Made on a Mac" badge wouldn't in an of itself be a copyright/trademark violation, since Apple allows web sites to use it, nor would using Xcode if they did develop the "app" using those tools. So again, I don't see that there would be any legal grounds for Apple themselves to take any action against the site or the developers.

Regards.

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Answer 4

annoyed123 Author

Level 1

30 points

Apr 28, 2011 1:05 PM in response to varjak paw

Oh yeah it does say that you have to SSH. I just double clicked and imported it into itunes. It also says that:

There are jailbreaking and no jailbreaking instructions (which is what i did)

Any iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad NO JAILBREAK NEEDED

contradictory much? Just another nail in the scam coffin me things

Enough said. Made a video to help people become more aware: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5cheMmnmV8

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