How much trust do you put in Apple’s stewardship of the App Store – the online marketplace where you can download apps for your iPhone or iPad?
Chances are that you don’t think twice about installing software from the App Store – after all, all the software up there has been verified by “Apple”, right?
Well, just because Apple has put in procedures to police their App Store, and – unlike the Google Android platform – pre-approve each app, doesn’t mean that fake or malicious apps have never appeared.
This weekend the iPhoneography blog spotted a bogus app posing as the popular Camera+ application, and posted a screenshot to warn readers:
Fortunately, iPhoneography’s Glyn Evans realised something fishy was afoot and contacted Tap Tap Tap, the real makers of Camera+, and asked them to confirm whether the app – which claimed to be “THE MOST AMAZING CAMERA+ VERSION YET” – was legitimate or not.
Oh, Apple and your all too often disappointing approval process. Thanks to Glyn Evans for noticing this Camera+ fake: iphoneography.com
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tap tap tap (@taptaptap) January 21, 2012
We haven’t been able to get our hands on a copy of the bogus app, so we cannot confirm if it contained any malicious functionality. It is possible that the popular app’s name was being taken in vain, simply in order to try to earn some money from online purchases.
The good news is that, once notified, Apple quickly withdrew the bogus software from its App Store.
But questions still remain as to what went wrong with Apple’s approval process.
Why didn’t they notice that someone was uploading a false version of such a well-known app?
After all, Camera+ is currently the 14th best-selling app in the App Store – Apple should surely recognise if someone other than Tap Tap Tap tries to submit it to the store?
As always, be careful what applications you install on your computing devices – even if they come from the Apple App Store.
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