Apple continues to break financial records but – after shock revelation after revelation after revelation after revelation – concerns are growing about a major source of these revenues: the Apple App Store. And now the biggest bomb to date has been dropped on iPhone owners.

MORE FORBESSerious new warning issued for Apple’s 1.65 billion iPads and iPhone usersThrough Gordon kelly

Having garnered international attention following its recent presentations on App Store fleece items, hidden casinos in kids’ games, and an iOS VPN scam app “ factory ”, the developer Kosta Eleftheriou a ad new software he says uncovered the App Store fraud against iPhone and iPad owners, which “is measured in billions, not millions.”

“I have so far found hundreds of scam apps, including several multi-million dollar scams that go unchecked for months or even years as Apple collects their 30% discount,” Eleftheriou said, telling me about his new software.

The developer had teased the software earlier this month, citing a 2015 request from Apple Fellow and former senior vice president of global product marketing, Phil Schiller, to his team to “PLEASE develop a system to automatically find and purge low-rated apps !!”. No such software was created, until Eleftheriou took it upon himself to build it.

Notably, Eleftheriou shared a screenshot (below) targeting a single developer, Dragon Game Studio, which currently has over 40 scam apps on the App Store with combined revenue of over $ 3.5 million. .

For his part, Eleftheriou has skin in the game. He developed the popular Apple Watch app FlickType, only to see his success marred by a series of fraudulent apps traded under similar names. Eleftheriou said he complained to Apple, but no action was taken to try to force the low-cost sale of his app to the company. He subsequently sued Apple.

Of course, whatever his motivation, Eleftheriou is far from the only one to criticize and denounce the bad practices of the App Store. Epic Games (creator of Fortnite), Spotify, Match Group (owner of Tinder) and many others have recently attacked Apple for unfair and exploitative practices of the App Store. Eric Friedman, senior fraud engineer at Apple, was also quoted in legal documents last month, saying that the App Store’s defenses were like “bringing a plastic butter knife to a shootout.”

“The App Store is not a trustworthy place to download apps, but unfortunately it’s the only place,” Eleftheriou told me, in a warning to iPad and iPhone owners. “So be diligent and do your own research outside of the App Store before downloading an app. Don’t fall for Apple’s marketing claims and don’t trust any of the ratings or reviews. Don’t assume that Apple will give you a refund or even notify you if you are the victim of a scam app. “

Eleftheriou said he plans to “share more scams and numbers soon.” In the meantime, I have contacted Apple and will update this message if I receive a response.

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