Have you ever had any of your property taken from you without permission? We mostly call that ‘stealing’, which is what some app burglars who masquerade as developers are busy doing.
A Reddit user and developer who goes by the username MadRoxy bumped on two rip-offs of his app in the PlayStore, which were published under two accounts. Upon further scrutiny, he realized that the users had decompiled his application package kit (apk) through some reverse engineering techniques. The thieves went ahead to poorly cover their tracks by changing unit ads for good measure.
One of the fraudster app is dubbed Ear Super: Super Hearing and its app description is marred by sentences that do not make sense. Consider this: Super hearing application hearing is especially helpful for those who suffer from a lack of application in the hearing or want to Super hearing on relatives or friends motivated impressed and that’s what makes them begrudge you supernatural hearing. Or this sentence: The application of our Super hearing ear that liberates you from the Super hearing bug. It is a nice application and is designed for refusing the acquisition of Super hearing devices. And listening device.
Exceptional sentences, those.
Next in line is Super Ear: Super Hearing (see the creativity in their naming? Both have colons). This one is blessed with a legible app description.
Ideally, the two knock-offs are meant take care of people with hearing disabilities by provisioning tools that can enhance hearing.
That said, the Reddit user has reported the matter to Google on multiple occasions without getting a response. In fact, he went through Google’s Legal Removal Requests procedure and flagged the apps as inappropriate. It is not clear why it would take long for Google to investigate the matter but as one user cheekily reported, the multinational technology organization has its focus on other priorities such as making a new messaging app.
Google may be overwhelmed by the sheer number of apps in the Play Store, maybe. We have been observing some form of laxity on Play Store such as apps getting fake reviews, and now, app theft.
