Attack of the Clones: how scammers make money by copying the App Store app

Fraudsters have developed a storm of activity in the App Store. Their crafts clones flooded the Apple store applications. A similar story happened with the application Beatiful Mess. Careless crooks have created several clones of this application, selecting the developers and potential revenue position in the App Store. CEO of the company that created Beautiful Mess, was enraged by such impudence. What exactly happened with this program and how the scammers make a quick buck by copying the program from the App Store? Let's face it.

attack of the clones

Officially, the application Beautiful Mess It was a continuation of the eponymous blog. It allows you to edit photos, add to all sorts of effects, text filters. The app came out on May 14 and soon took the top spot in the top of the US App Store paid programs.

In June, the application has got the first clone. He used the same icon and screenshots in the description as the original application. The only difference was in the title - Beautiful Mess Free. The second clone was made by designer John Harlampo and it was called Beautiful Mess Plus. By early August, these clones in the App Store was already 7, one of which even ranked in the top 50.

Official application began to lose its position in the App Store, and has slipped to the fifties lines.

Beautiful Mess developers have tried to achieve the removal of illegal copies of their application from the App Store. "We told Apple about unscrupulous developers, and written by the developers who violate our intellectual property rights", - says Trey George, Business Development Manager Beautiful Mess business.

"They said something like:" I'm sorry for the mistake, we will try to fix it "- says Trey. "I'm sorry for the mistake? Are they accidentally inserted an exact copy of our icons and screenshots?! "- outraged George.

"The most incredible in this at all is that legally, we almost could not do anything", - adds George. "Our lawyer said straight - legal fees will block your potential winnings. So this did not make sense. "

Eric Clymer, a leading developer of Rocket Mobile, which made a formal application He suggested that such careless developers, in fact, try to get quick money and time to leave. "They do not care about anything other than the first check from Apple for the implementation Epp," - says Eric.

There is a special interval between the purchase of applications and payment of money from Apple. He is about a week. However, Apple does not disclose the algorithms on which they evaluate the number of programs sold and calculate how much money you need to pay the developer.

How to create a clone

Copying applications App Store is not the most trivial matter. Those who participated in the creation of the original application did not say exactly how you can copy a program. But apparently, this process includes the use of jailbroken devices and manual decryption code. Recent apps use ASLR, which makes it difficult to decipher and copy the software program code. But the old programs do not use ASLR, so they are easier to crack.

"No one understands how you can so easily copy the code," - says Clymer.

As soon as the "Clone" appears on the binary code, they can change it and publish the application again in the App Store, just under a different name. Apple really provides a quick check of the names of new applications, to for example, the App Store was not dozens of programs called «Instagram».

Creators clones Beautiful Mess managed to get around this hurdle by adding to the original name of the additional words: Plus, Express, Free. Applications go by different names, but the developers are using the same icon and hang different price tags: there are free "counterparts", there are also more expensive.

"I'm sure that would hardly be able to publish it in the App Store« Instagram Plus »or« Instagram Free », - says Clymer. Maybe it's due to the fact that the original Beautiful Mess is not so long in the App Store, as the same Instagram, and therefore Apple has not paid much attention to him?

ArsTechnica Journalist specially downloaded some clones Beautiful Mess on your iPhone. For example, Bueatiful Mess Express was almost an exact copy of the original application. We changed a bit some artistic decorations and there was a banner ad at the top of the screen. Everything else - as in the original application.

Find developers of such programs is almost impossible. None of them did not leave any contact information about yourself.

Murder clones

Which of these Beautiful Mess - the original application?

After a number of clones was the highest in mid-August, they all disappeared from the App Store. Whiskas Scott, CEO of Rocket Mobile says that the clones are removed within a few days after visiting the app store.

This story is unlikely to deprive us of the credibility of the store applications App Store, but the lack of Android in the same general any pre-moderation, can lead to very serious problems. Clymer says the case as recently the game was legally downloaded 144 times, and its pirated version had 50,000 downloads.

Some of those who created the clones Beautiful Mess, are hundreds of other applications in the App Store. For example, Kim Tulsa has a whole catalog of similar applications. It is hoped that Apple is now closely watching him and other developers.

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Have you faced clones applications the App Store? How can you make life difficult for fraudsters to the App Store does not appear similar programs? Leave your opinion in the comments.