A music app that charges $520 a year against its subscribers’ wishes. A digital wallet that squanders the retirement fund of its users. A children’s game that is actually an online casino… Scams abound in the Apple and Google application stores. And very little is being done to curb the phenomenon. In fact, the worst may be yet to come.
In early January, the creators of the Montreal app AmpMe suddenly found themselves in trouble when it was discovered that the app was doing everything it could to force its users to subscribe to it. The cost of this subscription is $10 per week. Renewal is automatic and in perpetuity. Terminating it afterwards is rather complicated.
Since 2018, AmpMe has, according to the estimate of independent analysts, garnered revenues of 18 million US dollars by betting on this scheme. The app also boasts a ton of rave reviews that appear on its page in the App Store. Slight detail: these rave reviews obviously look fake.
It must be said that, to “sell” applications, false praise is a very widespread tactic. To make money, subscriptions with terms that are not always very clear are another. Both Apple and Google, which for its part manages the Play Store of Android phones, are struggling to catch them all.
Mobile platforms also do not have a monopoly on applications with suspicious methods. AmpMe is the brainchild of a Montreal developer who was criticized by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 2017 for how it made it easy to install spyware on its users’ personal computers.
Suddenly becoming the target of criticism, the creators of AmpMe reacted around mid-January by cutting their subscription rates in half. They also admitted to having resorted without supervising them too much to consultants whose expertise is to maximize by all means the popularity of applications on mobile stores.
It is said that fault confessed is half forgiven.
Less advertising
The person who launched the alert about AmpMe is called Kosta Eleftheriou. He is one of the harshest critics of the methods used by Apple to sort out the applications that end up on its App Store. He also shares on his Twitter account the name of several applications that look like a scam. Most want only one thing: to make money as quickly as possible.
According to experts, such practices are increasingly common these days on Apple and Google app stores. Because the two companies seem unable to stem the phenomenon. Worse: they could in spite of themselves have thrown oil on the fire.
How? ‘Or’ What ? Apple decided last fall to reduce the grip that advertising companies have on its mobile devices. And it seems to be working: Facebook says it lost US$10 billion last year just because of these Apple-imposed limits. In the United States, the iPhone accounts for just under half of all mobile phones in circulation. This means that another 10 billion are at stake on the Android device side. And we’re only talking about the United States…
Precisely, last week, Google announced that it was going to imitate Apple. Google has introduced a project called Privacy Sandbox, which will add settings to Android phones over the next few months to blur the trail of online advertising.
All-round application developers therefore risk losing a good part of their income, since the mobile market relies heavily on advertising to be profitable. Many of these developers now see the subscription model as their best way to offset this drop in revenue.
More subscriptions
This isn’t such good news for smartphone owners, predicts mobility specialist Martin Dufort. “There are all kinds of scams on the App Store, because there is also a huge pool of users who have money to spend, he observes. Scammers will want to take advantage of this turn. »
Especially since it’s easy to get these users to spend money, often even without their knowledge. “People don’t always read the terms of service all the way, and it’s easy to hide in the fine print what they subscribe to,” continues the specialist. “And right now, Apple and Google charge automatically at the end of a free trial without user intervention. »
Some app developers in a hurry to recoup lost advertising money as soon as possible will be tempted to exploit the lax subscription terms of mobile app stores. They will certainly be ready for anything. Like hiring the same marketing consultants that got AmpMe into trouble. Or embed unwary users in excessively expensive subscription formulas.
Of course, Apple and Google could quickly limit the abuse. By imposing an automatic expiration of subscriptions after a certain period of time, for example. But they don’t. At least Apple already provides the necessary tools for app makers to be as transparent as possible about the recurring fees they charge. But they remain to this day too little used.
In short, while waiting for a stricter supervision of the subscription, it will be up to wireless owners to be vigilant.
Clicking too quickly on an application could end up being expensive…