Apple under fire for taking "weeks" to remove fraudulent app from App Store

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

Despite repeated complaints lodged with Apple, the tech giant reportedly took weeks to remove 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 attempted to contact Apple on several occasions, the company was said to have taken weeks to act.

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.

Taylor told TechCrunch: "After weeks of ignoring us, Apple took down the fake app just hours after your article appeared."

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

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