Kosta Eleftheriou’s App Store Scam of the Day: ‘Jungle Runner 2k21’

Kosta Eleftheriou on Twitter:

This @AppStore app pretends to be a silly platformer game for children 4+, but if I set my VPN to Turkey and relaunch it becomes an online casino that doesn’t even use Apple’s IAP.

In other countries, the same app shows different local casinos — Kazakhstan and Italy, for example. The developer isn’t running the online casinos. He’s just showing the casino websites in a web view, and collecting new user bonuses when people sign up through his embedded affiliate code.

Countdown until this app is removed from the App Store in 3… 2… 1… [Update: One day later and poof, it’s gone.]

(Pedantic note, but no real-money casino could ever use Apple’s in-app purchases. App Store developers get paid by Apple monthly (a whole nother issue — Stripe can pay out weekly or even daily). Real-money online casinos only accept instant irrevocable transfers.)

★ Thursday, 15 April 2021