Panic Blog

Like Minecraft? Then surely you’ll love Mooncraft!

Except, well, you really won’t. Really:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZrBGcsV9Y

What happened here? It’s pretty simple.

1. Scammer makes an extremely simple iOS app and submits it to Apple.

2. Once it’s approved, they change the screenshots, description, and name — things you can edit at any time.  Piggyback off a popular game!

3. Buy hundreds of fake ★★★★★ reviews, somehow.

4. Sit back and relax as you slowly and gently travel towards hell.

This isn’t Apple’s fault, of course — it’s bait-and-switch, the classic inch/mile situation that scammers rely on. How can Apple fix this? Being able to adjust screenshots/descriptions after submitting is important, and we don’t want that to go away. And it’d be unreasonable for Apple to manually review all screenshot changes.

How about this: after an app hits the store, if it has nothing but 1-star reviews (that include text!), and those reviews mention keywords like “scam” a lot, flag it for further inspection?

I bet there’s an algorithm out there that could find these apps pretty quickly.

Either way, Quang Nguyen (which might be a fake name, of course): you’re a terrible person. (Thanks to Steve for missing the tiny popup button and clicking “Buy App” by accident.)

UPDATE 12/10/2012: For a while, Mooncraft was pulled from the store. But, of course, it’s back.

UPDATE 1/10/2013: Apple has announced a new policy that screenshots can only be updated when they accompany a new application binary submitted for review. Hopefully that will put a stop to this particular type of trickery.

A while back, I became obsessed with getting an “Extended Validation” certificate for our website, just so that we can have a little green “Panic Inc” sitting in the address bar.

You know exactly what I’m talking about:

Getting that green rectangle was, put simply, Le Pain Royale. I suppose that’s the point. It also wasn’t cheap.

After hearing me repeatedly complain about the frustrations of getting our Extended Validation certificate, our own Mike Merrill made me a compelling offer.

For the same amount of money I’d spend on an Extended Validation certificate, Mike could provide our customers with a significantly more secure and immutable validation seal, one that would provide true “trust beyond pixels”.

With this idea, VTAC was born.

Art project? Groundbreaking new level of web security? Prank? Your call.

Should you have any doubts about panic.com security, please visit our office and ask to see Mike’s arm.

VTAC seals are now available for qualified third parties. Click here to learn more or request a quote.

Music courtesy 8-Bit Operators. Thanks!