Deluge of Fake Mac App Store Reviews
A surge of fake customer reviews in the US Mac App Store targeted top paid apps priced between $1.99 and $4.99. Reviews, mostly 5 stars, featured generic text, raising suspicions. The total cost of fake reviews exceeded $1150. Apple's default review sort order potentially hides these fake reviews. Motive remains unclear, with speculation of developer involvement. Apple's lack of curation raises authenticity concerns.
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A recent discovery revealed a surge of fake customer reviews in the United States Mac App Store for several top paid apps. Eight apps priced between $1.99 and $4.99 USD received a significant number of fake reviews between June 11 and July 19. The reviews, mostly 5 stars, featured generic or nonsensical text and similar user names. Notably, RapidClick stood out with reviews mentioning clicking, raising suspicions. The total cost of purchasing all fake reviews for these apps would exceed $1150. The default review sort order in the App Store is by Most Helpful, potentially hiding these fake reviews from customers. The motive behind these coordinated fake reviews remains unclear, with speculation suggesting a developer might be using them as a cover. Apple's failure to address this issue highlights a lack of curation in the Mac App Store, leaving the authenticity of reviews in question.
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- Some speculate that compromised accounts are being used to generate fake reviews, targeting popular and cheap apps.
- Developers, like the creator of BetterSnapTool, have reported the issue to Apple, which is investigating and removing some fake reviews.
- There is a broader concern about the prevalence of fake reviews in both the Mac and iOS App Stores, with some users noting that Apple deletes negative reviews.
- Questions arise about the motives behind the fake reviews, whether it's to boost app revenue or sabotage competitors.
- Criticism is directed at Apple's lack of effective curation and the need for better methodologies to identify fake reviews.
15 commentsEvery time I try to post it it's deleted within moments.
So they try to break up the pattern by having bots randomly assigned a different subset of inexpensive apps (not paid clients).
But you can’t do bad reviews because that would draw angry attention. So you give everyone 5 stars so they don’t complain.
The bot farmers probably don’t understand why anyone would report inorganic good reviews.
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