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Comment by MichaelGG | Hacker News Reader

I'm just trying to let FB know of a potential phishing attempt that's targeting all Windows users. I don't care about the bounty, in fact I only care a: to teach MS a lesson and b: to annoy the "developers" scamming people. I don't care enough to sign up for FB. Every other company I've dealt with on this, except some of the large media companies, have been easy enough to contact about the problem.

To be clear, the issue is: Windows users using the Windows search feature, or directly using the Windows Store, are presented with fake FB apps claiming to be official. Contacting MS support gets useless replies, as they are trying to pump their app counts. Meanwhile, normal users end up installing a potentially malicious app, claiming to be the official FB app. FB needs to send a takedown.

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things might have changed over the past 12 months, but if you report an app from the store app in windows 8, the report gets looked at and they were good about removing apps that had issues.

I say this since I went through this process myself about a year ago and the app I reported was taken down. full disclosure: I worked on the app store team, but didn't use any internal mechanism.

I've been going through this recently quite a bit. Reporting stuff is a waste of time, except for entertainment purposes.

I've reported all sorts of things. In nearly every single case, they say they cannot do anything. Even when there's a fake DropBox app "by" "@Microsoft". In that case, the CSR told me to try re-installing the app, that it worked for him. Zero understanding of the issue.

I've found a fake Windows Update on the Store. Reporting it got a generic response, until I emailed the MS security folks. Then it was removed in a few minutes. Meanwhile, they suggest I "Leave a review" or email the developer. Idiotic.

Netflix went back and forth with MS at least 3 times. Amazon had issues as well. Other ISVs tell me they can simply not get MS to be responsive about things.

Disney was the funniest response. Despite being a major Store publisher, there's all sorts of fake Disney stuff online. When I spoke to the Disney Store about it, the final suggestion was "don't go on it [the Windows Store]". Neato.

It's obvious MS is just padding the app numbers and no review is actually happening. It's a shame, since it undermines all the work; the Windows Store is a joke even with casual users. (Like even meeting random people on a plane and asking.) I emailed Satya. I emailed the GM of the Store. I emailed the Dev evangelist pushing the "let's pay people in third world countries 4 months salary for publishing 20 shitty wrap-a-webpage apps" program. No replies.

Here's a gallery of some gems: http://imgur.com/a/xvqZg#0

But nothing beats this awesomeness: http://imgur.com/fLOWMI4

I really hope they enable an Android compat layer. Even if it's slow, A: tons of random utility apps will be available, B: MS can enforce some quality instead of quantity.

I find it hard to believe MS isn't aware of these issues, unless no one actually uses it (Win10 makes it more in-your-face, though). Someone must have a bonus that's tied to "published app count". Neither Apple nor Google have these issues. The Store is worse than the Android Marketplace was.

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