“For some period of time — it’s unclear exactly how long — Apple has been removing fake reviews from the App Store that have unjustly helped certain apps climb higher in the charts than they would have otherwise,” Sarah Perez repots for TechCrunch.
“There was some discussion of this on a forum back in May, when a handful of developers noticed that a good chunk of their reviews went missing. None admitted to having bought reviews, however, which is sadly a common practice now,” Perez reports. “Developers often post jobs on freelancer marketplaces asking for reviews, or buy them in bulk from shady, third-party providers.”
“Apple is intervening, in some cases at least, to remove fake App Store ratings,” Perez reports. “In fact, any time Apple finds credible evidence of ratings fraud or manipulation, it can and “often” does take action to remove the ratings associated with that activity. How exactly Apple hears of this fraudulent activity in the first place, however, will vary. Sometimes, the company finds evidence of manipulation or gaming itself; other times, it’s brought to Apple’s attention by others.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Judge Bork” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
So those fake reviews are basically false advertising? Apple should remove those! I have downloaded crummy apps, because of some bum reviews. It’s nice to know that Apple is doing something about this.
Perhaps Apple should consider a sliding scale of punishment for such behavior, starting with removal of fake ratings, graduating to removal of the associated app, and culminating in the banishment of the developer and all associated apps? This type of behavior in antithetical to Apple’s consumer-focused approach.
This kind of rot can destroy an ecosystem. Prune hard, but fairly, and the good growth will flourish.
Some of this occurred in Amazon.com reviews and I was amongst those victimised, but it appears Amazon is seriously policing reviews lately. Glad to see Apple doing the same. But, you know, it’s human nature to find a dodge when you feel the game’s against you. Because of the lousy discovery process in iTunes, and an inadequate ranking system, a small developer can go tits up unless they can find some edge, and salting the reviews is often their only recourse in a sea of a million apps. That’s why fake reviews have become a cottage industry.
Amen sister!! I was so bummed after I bought the banana slicer on Amazon that was so highly rated. After I got it I was sorely disappointed with it’s performance.
Having enjoyed your wit and insights on this forum, I am now quite curious, exactly what is it that was on offer at Amazon…?
You are too kind to mention the times I posted nonsense. 🙂
This happened some time ago, when researching car covers. On the basis of certain Amazon reviews I purchased one (not thru Amazon, but from a cheaper source) and it was in tatters after a few storms. (in South Florida, that can be within a single month!)
I do trust their “trusted” reviews.
Ah, I see. Somehow, I got to understand that it was some work of yours on offer that was (is) reviewed poorly by malicious others…
I have a book, Predrag, long out of print (deservedly), and that’s about it. Oh, I do resell video games through Amazon.
Would it be possible to limit reviewers by cross-referencing their Apple ID with their App purchase history? What if you could only post a review on an app version you actually purchased?
This is how it currently and always has worked
I guess the penny apps can manipulate their paid reviews with very little investment. 😀
Soooooo glad I don’t really use the app reviews on the App Store when researching an application.
It’s like the Olympics of yore, through out the high and low scores and concentrate on the middle numbers.
Same here.
I always read/skim the 2-4 star stuff to find a view closer to what the app actually is.
Or if they have a “lite” version, I’ll try it first.
1 or 5 star reviews can be full of truth as well… But they can easily be false reviews.
This will hurt Realmac Software I hope.
I bought ember based on glowing reviews to find out its flawed in nearly every way and useless anyway. A very expensive scrapbook that replaces bookmarking. Clear is another far overated, overpriced, POS
Ember is the PERFECT example of rigged reviews. The ‘game’ was #1 for awhile, specifically because of the bombardment of faked 5 star reviews. I thankfully avoided the thing by checking out the most critical reviews, which nearly all pointed out that the 5 star reviews were faked. The language of the 5 star reviews was also so classic of con-job lingo that you’d read a few and quickly figure out something was wrong.
…Which all reminds me of the ZeoBit MacKeeper bombardment of coerced and faked positive reviews.
ERROR: Apologies. ‘Ember’ is NOT what I meant. The game I was discussing above is ‘A Dark Room’.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-dark-room/id736683061?mt=8
Check out the reviews. They’re unbelievable. I mean SERIOUSLY unbelievable. Considering that the game is 99¢, that’s a strange investment if each faked reviewer costs the developer essentially 29¢ each time (30% of 99¢). I figure there is some other way to force faked reviews into the store. But I have no idea how.
If Apple finds solid evidence, they should just do what Amazon does.
Remove the buy button. 😉
Just do away with ratings. Period. Problem solved.
I gave your comment a 1 star rating, and it really felt good.
Your rating is your intelligence level. On a scale of 0-100.
Really bad idea. I’ve helped a lot of people with ratings and they me.
Developers who buy fake reviews should be banned… not warned. Banned. They know better. If their apps can’t stand on their own, and if the developers can’t accept real feedback, then they shouldn’t be selling their apps on the app store. I won’t buy apps that look like they have fake reviews. I refuse to reward this dishonest behavior.
Apple should have zero tolerance with this.
They should also remove the companie’s apps from the App Store too and ban the developer.
There’s no excuse for this illegal activity.
If the crappy app developers designed better apps in the first place they wouldn’t need to buy fake reviews as people would buy the apps legitimately.
Misleading reviews are a frustrating shopping experience. It really sucks to have to wade through dozens of reviews trying to find what true, what’s a lie, who wrote this review? etc. before buying anything. It’s incredible its gone on for so long—it seems they’re fixed on how many apps are selling and how much money developers but not paying enough attention to buyer after sales experience. Why not .001% of those billions of dollars and setup a really good curator system to select what reviews are valid and worthy. Maybe half the reviews generally are just so obviously dumb, stupid, uninformative, obviously bias, a frustrated hater venting his anger, intentionally irritating, insulting, etc etc. I would like to see one review for each app separate to all the others by a smart, intelligent, Apple curator telling it like it is. If an app hasn’t had the work put into or the developer is not up to standard, or it is by a conn man then it gets a poor review and doesn’t sell (or doesn’t get into the store). Start focusing more on giving quality and value experience instead of trumpeting the sheer volume of apps and all the money being made. The fake developers/exploiters may whine and throw tantrums but those who are for real will work to get qualified. That’s my take.