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Comment by makecheck | Hacker News Reader

When a serious action is going to be taken for any reason, that action should be PRECEDED by at least an E-mail to the owner and the path to reverse the action should be clear. The E-mail should not just be a terse message, it should contain a wide variety of resources; something like: "Your account and applications will be disabled in 2 days for <reason>. Please select from the following links to attempt to resolve the issue, or call <number> as soon as possible.".

It’s not just apps, either. There is frequently a “less disruptive” option for any major action; for instance, you can “delete” files by starting with the instantly-reversible "chmod 000", and after some period of time you actually go ahead and "rm -Rf". If, in between, a panicked user E-mails you back and says they really needed those files, you undo your "chmod" and instantly fix the issue. Why should anything on the App Store take days?

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They can't give you advanced notice for "fraud" though. If your app actually commits fraud it's got to go right away to limit the amount of fraud you commit. They at least think some kind of fraud was happening, correctly or not.

No, they still could. The message could say: “We have received X complaints of fraud for your app, "Totally Not a Scam Lite", and it will be removed in 2 days unless you contact us immediately at <number>. In addition, if this is found to be true, any sales of your app will be refunded and not credited to your developer account.”.

Sure, they could, but it doesn't make business sense. This scheme might even cause a class action lawsuit from the people who bought it AFTER they knew it was fraud but BEFORE they removed it. Refunds very likely cost money in the form of credit card transaction fees and wages (people doing the refunding as well as CS fielding calls for two days).

Isn't that a classic cost of business which they're charging 30% of each transaction to cover? Banks do that kind of thing all the time with things like wire transfers where the fees and delays are, in part, expected to cover the cost of errors and abuse.

This scheme might even cause a class action lawsuit from the people who bought it AFTER they knew it was fraud but BEFORE they removed it.

Class actions suits have to show damages, no? After the money is refunded, what would the plaintiffs allege?

First, a class action suit for 48 hours of downloads on an app is not likely.

And certainly when fraud is detected some refunds will occur. So they set the tolerances such that they can pay those refunds with the fees they extract on the other side of the curve.

> First, a class action suit for 48 hours of downloads on an app is not likely.

You'd be amazed at what a few billion in the bank will attract, especially when it's cheaper to settle than litigate.

Nope, they can't.

First of all, if it's actually fraud that totally doesn't scale.

But in a more nuanced case, look at the iMessage App that allowed people to send images that looked like a stock Messages blue bubble. Good idea for humor, not so good for non-trolling UX. Apple pulls it but gives the developer a week to see if there's any way to salvage the situation to ease the heartstrings and pocketbook.

IMMEDIATELY calls go out to download the infringing app, several thousand more than anyone who might otherwise (full Streisand effect)...

Then imagine that app actually has Malware! Lots to think about, and if people hate on Apple for this, fair enough — as an iOS dev it's tough to defend. Really love Dash. Hope it gets straightened out. 8 years in on the platform and you can do a ton of things you couldn't do back in 08, and vice versa.

You should have downloaded "Totally Not a Scam Pro" when it was on the store!

They can put your payments on hold. After all, everything goes through them already

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