🚨 Apple, please investigate this App Store listing! ⚠️ Using recognizable brand names and similar app icons can mislead users into thinking an app is official. 🔎 Please review this app, enforce App Store guidelines, and remove it if it violates your policies. 🛡️ Users deserve transparency and a clear distinction between official and third-party apps — before they download. 🔗 apps.apple.com/us/app/calend… @Apple @AppleSupport @AppStore @Google @googlecalendar #MacAppStore #AppStore #Gmail #Google #ScamApps #ConsumerProtection #CyberSecurity

So apparently according to Apple: MITMing an encrypted communication to a service on the LAN and sniffing clear text password is... fine. "We’re unable to identify a security issue in your report." 🤷‍♂️

Credit where credit is due: 🫡 to @Apple App Review. Over the past week, I’ve watched hundreds of scammy/suspicious Mac App Store apps disappear — including many of those endless “App for …” apps. @lapcatsoftware documented this exact pattern back in May: lapcatsoftware.com/articles/… There are still some left, though: “App for Google Docs” apps.apple.com/us/app/app-fo… “Docs - App for Google Docs” apps.apple.com/us/app/docs-a… “App for Dropbox ®” apps.apple.com/us/app/app-fo… “App for Dropbox .” apps.apple.com/us/app/app-fo… And try searching the Mac App Store for “YouTube” or “Netflix” 👀 There’s clearly still work to do, but the cleanup happening right now is great to see. Hopefully @Apple keeps the momentum going and we get a much cleaner Mac App Store by the holidays. 🎄 Keep going, App Review. 🫡 #Apple #MacAppStore #AppStore #macOS #Mac #IndieDev #AppleDevelopers #AppStoreReview #ScamApps

🚨 We found a ChatGPT lookalike on Apple’s Mac App Store charging as much as $159.99. It uses an icon closely resembling OpenAI’s logo and puts “ChatGPT” in its subtitle — but it isn’t made by OpenAI. And that was only the beginning. We checked 58 written reviews across 37 storefronts. 37 are one-star reviews, and multiple buyers call the app fake, a scam or an imitation. One customer says they were charged more than $150 after believing they were getting the real ChatGPT. The same developer operates three overlapping chatbot apps. On Apple’s Irish App Store, all three are listed as “not a trader,” and Apple tells EEA consumers that consumer rights do not apply to agreements with the provider. Then we widened the investigation. We searched hundreds of Mac App Store listings and found dozens of third-party apps using major brand names such as ChatGPT, Google Drive, Dropbox, Discord, TikTok and TradingView. One thing Mac users should know: ⚠️ OpenAI does NOT currently distribute ChatGPT through the Mac App Store. The official Mac app comes directly from ChatGPT.com. Full investigation, including the App Store data and what we found 👇 thedailytechfeed.com/scam-ap… #ChatGPT #Cybersecurity #Apple #ScamApps #AI @Apple @AppStore @OpenAI

⚠️ Potential scam / impersonation concern: this Mac App Store app uses an icon that closely resembles OpenAI’s official ChatGPT icon. @Apple is obsolete to fight with scams.... @OpenAI @AppleSupport apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-cha…