Apple Boots Developer for Shady App Store Dealings

Categories Apple Dev, Apple/Mac, Information Technology, iTunes, Programming, Security

via E-Commerce Times

An Apple App Store developer has been shown the door for allegedly scamming the system in order to propel his applications to the top of the store’s “Books” category. The operation may have also involved fraudulent charges placed on the accounts of hundreds of iTunes customers. Apple said iTunes’ main servers, where millions of customers’ credit card numbers are stored, were not compromised.

Security experts will tell you that cybercriminals like to hit online operations with large numbers of users. So it shouldn’t be surprising that an unscrupulous individual has apparently been caught lurking in the heavily trafficked Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iTunes App Store.

Clues that something was amiss in the App Store surfaced over the weekend when apps by a particular developer — with very few customer reviews or ratings — captured 42 of the top 50 spots in the App Store’s “Books” category. There were also reports of some App Store customers seeing hundreds of dollars in unauthorized charges to their accounts for the purchase of some of these apps. …