Apple under fire for not taking down fraudulent app despite ongoing complaints

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RockAuto, a car parts dealer operating across North America, has been in a one-sided battle recently as it tries to remove a counterfeit app impersonating the company on Apple’s App Store.

Despite repeated complaints lodged with Apple, the tech giant has not yet removed the fake app from the App Store, raising concerns about the integrity of the platform that promises rigorous vetting before apps are allowed to be published.

The company first became aware of the dodgy app when customers started complaining about intrusive adverts appearing in what they believed to be RockAuto’s iOS app.

Don’t download this RockAuto app

Jim Taylor, the company’s co-founder and president, told TechCrunch: “We discovered someone placed an app in the Apple App Store using our logo and company information – but with the misspellings and clumsy graphics typical of phishing schemes.”

Despite impersonating RockAuto on the App Store, many of the app’s mentions within the description refer to the company as ‘RackAuto.’ Other thoughtless errors, such as the word ‘Heading’ appearing on one of the images showing a screenshot of the app, are all telltale signs that this app is certainly not legitimate.

Although RockAuto has attempted to contact Apple on several occasions, the company has remained unresponsive.

Taylor added: “Neither the uploaded documents nor the online form submissions produced any response at all… not even the promised ‘case number in 24 hours’ despite multiple submissions.”

The fact that the fraudulent app has made its way onto the App Store is alarming in itself, but combined with the fact that Apple has been arguing against the EU’s Digital Markets Act in recent weeks citing the superior security and privacy of its App Store is more alarming.

TechRadar Pro has asked Apple to comment on the ongoing case, but the company did not immediately respond.