Researchers have found another wave of mobile apps overcharging iOS users for meager services. They have identified more than two dozen such iOS fleeceware apps active on the App Store.
iOS Fleeceware Apps Found
Researchers from Sophos Labs have identified 30 different iOS fleeceware apps on the App Store. During their study, they found that the apps charge unusually high amounts to users for offering meager services.
As mentioned in their post,
Most of these fleeceware apps are image editors, horoscope/fortune telling/palm readers, QR code/barcode scanners, and face filter apps for adding silly tweaks to selfies.
For such apps, the researchers found the developers charging high rates such as $9/week or $30/month. Whereas, they offer 3-day or 7-day trial period to the users.
Though, even in the ‘free’ trial period, the apps do not provide many vital features to the users for free. Hence, compelling the users from day-1 to subscribe. Whereas, in some other cases, the apps would mention themselves as ‘free’ whilst not being free in real. This is also something in contrast with App Store policies.
Many of these apps, as also evident through user reviews, lured users from various advertisements. These ads may appear on popular platforms like TikTok and YouTube, or some other apps.
While details about all the 30 apps are in the researchers’ post, here we quickly name them all.
- Seer App: Face, Horoscope, Palm
- Selfie Art – Photo Editor
- Palmistry Decoder
- Lucky Life – Future Seer
- Life Palmistry – AI Palm & Tag
- Picsjoy-Cartoon Effect Editor
- Aging seer – Faceapp, Horoscope
- Face Aging Scan-AI Age Camera
- Face Reader – Horoscope Secret
- Horoscope Secret
- CIAO – Live Video Chat
- Astro Time & Daily Horoscope
- Video Recorder / Reaction
- Crazy Helium Funny Face Editor
- Banuba: Face Filters & Effects
- QR Code Reader – Scanner
- QR Code Reader & Barcode PRO
- Max Volume Booster
- Face Reading – Horoscope 2020
- Forecast Master 2019
- mSpy Lite Phone Family Tracker
- Fortunescope: Palm Reader 2019
- Zodiac Master Plus – Palm Scan
- WonderKey-Cartoon Avatar Maker
- Avatar Creator – Cartoon Emoji
- iMoji – Cartoon Avatar Emojis
- Life Insight-Palm & Animal Face
- Curiosity Lab-Fun Encyclopedia
- Quick Art: 1-Tap Photo Editor
- Astroline astrology, horoscope
- Celeb Twin – Who you look like
What Should You Do?
For users of any of these apps, the best option to avoid overpaying is to cancel subscriptions right away.
It is also possible that your device may have one or more of such apps installed without your consent. So, do a thorough review of all the apps running on your device, check all subscriptions and see what’s relevant to you.
Last year, the same researchers also highlighted dozens of fleeceware apps on the Play Store that overcharged Android users.