Chennai: Avast, a digital security and privacy products provider, has discovered and reported three apps to Apple’s App Store, which overcharge users, do not provide the services they promote and appear to be ‘fleeceware’.
According to data from Sensor Tower, a mobile apps marketing intelligence and insights company, the apps have been downloaded over 420K, 271K, and 96K times, respectively, between April 2019 and May 2020.
The apps claim to be VPN apps, charging $9.99 (USD) a week for a weekly subscription once their free three-day trial expires. The apps’ all have high ratings, ranging from 4.6 to 4.8, and include enthusiastic reviews, all similarly written, which Avast considers may potentially be fake. In between the rave reviews, there are a few reviews warning of the scams. The apps’ privacy policies also have very similar language and structure.
Researchers installed the three apps and successfully purchased subscriptions to each app; however, when they tried to use the VPNs, the apps only provided subscription options again. After attempting to purchase the subscriptions again, Avast researchers were notified they already have a subscription and thus were unable to establish a VPN connection using any of the apps.