A Leak in the iPhone App Store, Just on iPhone, Spammers are Affecting the keyword suggested apps, It needs serious attention

It is in the iPhone App Store of Australia, Canada, Germany, France,...

Recently, The Spam applications have been growing in the App Store and these apps are using fake activities to upgrade the rank of their apps in the App Store. They have a trick to deceive the App Store for accepting their spam and duplicated apps. The trick is that these scammers design their app only for iPhone and only in a specific language and then request to release the app in that specific country. They had find this leak to deceive the App store in order to have their spam apps to be accepted in the Appstore for publishing, They know very well that the App store accepts their spam apps, because the app store mainly accepts apps in a certain language, no matter if they are duplicate or spam apps, the App Store will accept. This is the leak. Please be notified that this trick is working just for iPhone apps.

After a while, They add new languages and ask to be published in the App Store of different countries by adding different languages to the app, One by one, and then with the help of too many bot downloads and posting fake high rates and reviews, Their apps will be the first ranked suggested app in important and popular keywords, Even without paying for Search Ads or so. This is quite evident in the stores of Canada, Australia and Germany, Kindly please search the keyword “PDF editor” in the store of Canada And check the activity of thi app :

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdf-converter-pdf-viewer/id6449454399

This is a new app, With no feedback from the users, But this is the first app ranked in the keyword “PDF Editor” in the Canada App Store, This is happening just by using bots to make too many downloads on this keyword for this app, If you check it deeply, You will find out most of the parts of this app is not available in English yet while they add English Language like Payment forms.

These are other apps who are using this method to publish their apps and making their apps high ranked in important keywords by using the described fake activities,

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdf-editor-sign-fill-more/id6447789797

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdf-editor-sign-fill-docs/id6452676035

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/edit-fill-pdf-sign-docs/id6449665066

You should consider that affecting the App store algorithms are against the App store guidelines, and these apps are exactly doing this and all these activities are against App Store guidelines, So you should take this report seriously. This leak has been in the App Store for a long time and I reported before many times but it seems it is not clearing deeply.

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Neda_Dev
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i can't believe it the first one app with foreign languages is first one in US , UK and Australia without one rate or review or something special in app !!! without any Search ads !!!! App store should remove all this app don't have a time to add English subscription !!! but its first one really poor app with low quality !!!!!! he used Face image as Screen shot its legal without copyright !!!! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdf-converter-pdf-viewer/id6449454399

App Store is responsible and should remove all spam applications in this conversations.

Posted by
WasaB
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  • All Applications in Listed pages are poor and very low quality just all designed for iPhone and all forced user to rate in first open after 3 sec how developer can write over 30 000000 million download active user ( in Screen shot) this app is very new in App Store !!! how App Store can't check this or missed this ! All Application in this page should remove it from App Store to say the scammer should stop scamming and try to make a unique idea and etc... these all scam apps collected data too!

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    WasaB
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This again? Do you do anything besides grumble about this?

Have you actually raised this with Apple? No one in the Dev Forums is going to be able to help you with this - as I suspect you know - so please raise a bug report and let Apple deal with it. Spamming these forums doesn't help you or us.

Posted by
darkpaw
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  • How you claim for that no one is going to be able to help me, while all my previous reports had considered and solved, Here is a forum for App Creators, At least majority of the readers are app creators of App Store, & here is a place where we are allowed to share our concerns & and all the creators have the right to be notified about what's going on there. I report this matter previously to App Store team also. I am not the one who is spamming, but you are the one who stands beside spammers.

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    Neda_Dev

  • If you've already reported it to the App Store team then why are you reporting it here? This is what I mean by spamming these forums.

    I don't stand beside spammers, thanks, but I also don't know why you think any app creator on here is going to be able to help you with this? What do you want from us? Agreement that there's an issue in the App Store? Great! I agree, but I can't do anything about it, neither can any of the other app creators on here. Speak to the App Store team again.

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    darkpaw

  • If you can not do anything, just ignore this article, its not relating to you, This is a App Store leak & relates to AppStore developers who are available here & should be notified about this, Not you. Just check the keywords of this article, If I can use these keywords it means I can talk about these topics, This report is exactly related to App Store Devs & App Creators, Why you think you are the only one here? If you can't help it doesn't mean any other doesn't need to know about this.

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    Neda_Dev
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The reason I say you're spamming the dev forums is because every topic you've ever started here has been about PDF editor apps, and how there are scams on the App Store for PDF editor apps.

Every response is a grumble about it, except the one where you said that the issue has been solved by the App Store team. If the App Store team solved it, why do you think us developers can solve it for you?

I understand that scam apps are a problem, but I will say it again, no one on here can help you. You must get in touch with the App Store Team, not random developers who use these forums to fix issues with their code etc. Your issue is not with code or anything like that; it's with the App Store team, and you should simply get in touch with them.

A member of Apple's team actually told you how to report this issue, but you continue to raise it here where nothing can be done about it:

Posted by
darkpaw
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  • First I should mention that I did all the reports in the App Review page, even I have the case number, As this issue is a technical one, App Store developers should be notified about this,Previously some of the issues had fixed but again the spammers using new tricks that should be reported. I am not spamming This forum and your reason is not correct,These apps are spammers and the easiest ways to find their tricks , That's why I always use those apps to explain my investigations.

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    Neda_Dev

  • Instead of insisting me to not write reports here, Why you never take these leaks seriously? Why you don't mention that there is no expert in Report Concern part to understand the issue until I talk about it in the forum? Why alway the App Store team mention that they are investigating but nothing happens? You said that you believe that spammers are doing activities against App Store Guidelines, Instead of putting all your efforts to stop me, Try to help for stopping them.

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    Neda_Dev
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If spammers are using new tricks, then report them to the App Store as instructed to do so by one of Apple's staff who posts here on these forums.

You can keep posting new threads about the issue, but no one here can help you. We are developers looking for fixes and help with our code. If there are issues with the App Store, then tell the App Store team! It's really not that difficult.

I can't be bothered trying to help you anymore.

Posted by
darkpaw
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  • As I described before, I had reported this issue to the App Store team but still nothing happened for this new trick of spammers, In this forum, I can add images and links and descriptions the way that is not possible in App Store report, and As I said I wrote this article to be seen by App Store developers because it is a technical issue, I just do not know why are you wasting your time to answer me? Isn't it better you yourself report those apps and investigate about it?

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    Neda_Dev

  • I really appreciate all your efforts helping this forum to be helpful as it should be, Me, Same as you, Loves to try to help the App Store to be clearest platform. Both of us are same in different categories, I am not spam, If I were, I could do spamming instead of talking about the tricks of spammers. Now you are responsible about this issue because you know everything about this matter, You, Yourself, Report about these spam apps,If it works, Let me know.

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    Neda_Dev
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