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Comment by reverend_gonzo | Hacker News Reader

More than likely, that app is used to either launder funds or get money out of stolen credit cards.

This seems like a horrible way to do both of those things... very easy to track, and you don't think Apple/investigators will notice if a lot of stolen cards are buying the same app?

>This seems like a horrible way to do both of those things... very easy to track, and you don't think Apple/investigators will notice if a lot of stolen cards are buying the same app?

Doesn't matter if the cash has already been funneled overseas. Good luck extraditing someone on credit card fraud from Cambodia.

Plausible, but that still doesn't explain why Apple allows these apps.

The credit card thieves set up icloud accounts using the stolen card numbers. They make purchases of their own fake apps. The real credit card owner doesn't report the fraud to Apple App Store, but to Visa. Visa issues a chargeback.

Apple iCloud fraud team doesn't communicate sufficiently or at all with Apple App Store fraud team, because the losses are seen as chump change or due to organizational friction. App gains traction in App Store due to high revenues and low complaints.

Eventually someone not-tech-savvy will download it and complain. Then, maybe, it will get taken down. Or if someone writes a popular blog post about it.

The point isn't about the fraud or the possible laundering. The point is that Apple _must_ have some people doing data analytics on app sales and numerous other app store metrics, and therefore they should have already investigated these outliers.

And even before these apps became "successful", they should have gone through some review process. Clearly they were not reviewed at all.

If that is the case why so they make it look so spammy?

May not be intentional in this case, but 419 scammers typically go for these "obvious" red flags as they work as sort of gates to block the less gullible people from getting further into the process as they don't convert.

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