So I got this very alarming email from Apple just a few minutes ago. The only problem I have is that I don't understand what it is trying to tell me. I cannot see where I have gone wrong in my apps. And I haven't tried to submit an app/update for a few months now. What is going on? Here is the email I received: ********************************************************************************************** We are writing to inform you that your company is not in compliance with the iOS Developer Program License Agreement (PLA) due to documented evidence of manipulation of the user reviews and/or chart rankings associated with your apps on the App Store. Section 12.2 (Termination) states: (f) if You engage, or encourage others to engage, in any misleading, fraudulent, improper, unlawful or dishonest act relating to this Agreement, including, but not limited to, misrepresenting the nature of Your submitted Application (e.g., hiding or trying to hide functionality from Apple’s review, falsifying consumer reviews for Your Application, etc.). Be aware that employing services that manipulate App Store chart rankings or user reviews on your behalf may also result in the loss of your developer program membership. Please address this issue promptly. ********************************************************************************************** Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It seems that you have "hired" people to rate or buy your app.

Are you sure it's not just a spam/scam email trying to get your apple details?

From what you've posted here, it could be related to reviews of the app, not the apps themselves. Is that possible?

So, good news is, they are not going to terminate you unless you address the issue. First thing, you need to write Apple and ask them what's going on. From looking at your apps, I don't see what their issue could possibly be.

Hmmm... It looks like Apple is locking down on these things after their algorithm change http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/06/new-report-on-apples-app-store-algorithm-change-shows-how-even-a-minor-ratings-shift-affects-top-apps/ It could be that you are receiving too many reviews from the same area/IP address. Check with Apple just to be sure.

Yup, I had a client once that paid for app reviews on his apps, he got the exact same email. Basically, apple has "detected" fraudulent ratings/reviews on your app and thus the email was sent. David https://buzztouchmods.com/market

@bigPaul... I can confirm that it was sent from an Apple email address, so it is certainly valid. @MrVanBeveren... I can't see what I have done wrong. I don't even have a push notification to tell people to review the app, or even a link on my apps @Everyone else... I will contact Apple to see what's going on. I hope there's nothing fishy going around, but I want to be sure.

WOW Thomas, This is scarier than receiving a letter from a Lawyer. Lawyers can beat on their chests and make demands. Apple can shut down your Developer Account. Not the end of the world but will get your attention. Time to find out more details from Apply and then beg forgiveness. Please keep your forum family in the loop. Good luck. Mike

That's kind of scary. What's to prevent someone from hiring Fiver to fake review a competitor's app in hopes of getting that developer's program membership revoked.

I have checked all the reviews on my iTunes connect page, and can assure you that nothing looks dodgy. I will contact Apple to see what's going on.

I have sent out an email to Apple in hope that I will find the cause. Of course, I do want to find out what has provoked this. I'll keep you all in the loop, so we'll just have to see what happens. In Apple tradition, it probably won't be a few days before any reply is received.

could it be a competitor or someone reporting you to have apple initiate a review but you on their radar are those reviewing or downloading other app developers in the bt family compared to normal consumers just downloading i dunno but would like to see what they say

@Thomas: Have you noticed an increase in sales or downloads recently? Jake

@Jake... I just reviewed all the downloads I got from my apps over the last few weeks. I have noticed something very odd. On 12th November, I got exactly 25 downloads from each of my apps. This gives a peak at 75 downloads in one day. I would normally only get about 10 per day. All these downloads came from the USA. I'll look further into this tomorrow, but something is really odd. Thanks for pointing that out @Jake.

I hate reading stuff like this. It's frustrating that Apple would send out an email like that when there is no clear reason - it says they have "documented evidence" but they didn't attach it? Seems pretty ignorant This wouldn't be because of Appirater would it?

I find these kinds of emails scary too but then it usually turns out to be a mistake or an over-reaction once you ask for specifics

part of being an entrepreneur, unfortunately but I'm sure they'll realise your a good sort and Apple give you a lot of chances to explain yourself before taking action in my experience

Dang! Apple don't mess around! LA

Thomas, I unfortunately received the same email from Apple and have spoken with them. It appears that the saga with the developer who copied my app (twice) has continued. He was responsible for 22 app reviews on my free "Blurry Wallpapers" app. They were all good reviews, but clearly fake. He also reviewed my Bible Lock Screens app. How do I know if was him? He left his actually name as one of the iTunes accounts... so yeah that was dumb. Anyways, I talked to Apple on the phone and emailed them our history. They removed the fraudulent reviews the next day. Pretty fast turn around. I believe the developer who copied my app wrote those fake "good reviews" on my Blurry app to flag my account. That is what generated the automated iTunes email about your account. You have been vocal in having my back during this whole ordeal (which I really appreciate) so he may have done the same to your account. Check and see if one of the iTunes reviewer names is "Thanhhoai". Then you will know for sure. I'm sure Apple is able to see that all of those reviews were from Thailand, from the same IP address or close by. Hope this helps. Email Apple back and I'm sure they will take care of it for you. God bless, Ryan

@Thomas: Which app are they talking about? Jake

@ryanmaher777, Thanks for posting! You didn't have to share your experience but you did. @Thomas Boyd, I would check with Apple, They have been keeping a sharper eye out for these things.

@Ryan Let's get the full investigation before we start blaming anyone! You are right on the money about Apple being top notch about handling stuff..... we get that you two are at war but is it REAL to say it happening to Thomas? This is how hysteria starts and we don't need that in our community. @Thomas thanks so much for letting us know. It's obvious that this was an attack. Is the action they are referring to on another store? Because when I search I only find a few comments on your app from some community members. I think it is awesome that Apple emailed you Thomas because at least you can come to the community and get help. @Everyone I have watched the birth of Buzztouch and I have witness growing pains. The success is because we work together. The sky is not falling all is well. Like I tell my kids yup there are "bad" kids everywhere ....face them----report them----learn from the incident -----move on. Punch them in the nose if there is danger...But never ever ever stoop down to their level by "getting back at them" They want the attention ignore them....it confuses them and have no choice but leave you alone :)

@Sheri - No investigation necessary. I talked to Apple. He made those reviews on my account and had his license revoked. Why the constant defense of him? The email Thomas received is an automated iTunes email generated by suspicious activity. I'm only mentioning this to Thomas, because it JUST happened to me and he was very vocal in my previous forum post. All I'm saying is that if "Thanhhoai" is one of those new reviews, than its obvious. If your reference to "stooping down to their level" is referring to me, please explain. Defending my rights and pointing out a malicious bad Apple (pun intended) is not "stooping." There is no hysteria here.

@Thomas - All 22 suspicious App Store reviews that appeared on my account were from the US App Store originating in Thailand. They were all positive 5-star reviews on my free app "Blurry Wallpapers". They all looked very fake with similar titles and some with mashing of the keyboard random characters. I don't know if that is similar to your situation. Hope that helps homie.

@Sheri - I don't know you personally - you seem to be one of the nicest, coolest people on these forums, so I hate to have to disagree with you. I've seen you respond twice to Ryan's posts and more or less tell him that he is overreacting. Why? He seems like a smart dude who is only stating the facts. I would rather people on these forums be free to voice, and even vent, their opinions and gripes, instead of only posting positive stuff. We can't bury our heads in the ground and pretend that their aren't jerks out there who can make app development a serious headache. I am fully supportive of them being outed and dealt with. I personally find posts like the one Ryan originally posted above very helpful..now I can check my own apps to make sure this guy doesn't have a new vendetta against the BT community. @Ryan - I'm very happy to hear Apple killed his dev account. That is seriously low to post fraudulent reviews @Thomas - sorry to get off topic :)

@Ryan Investigation meaning with Thomas not you. As far as this thread sounds.... it was unrelated. I may be wrong but I couldn't see any comments from "Thanhhoai" on Thomas's apps. I hear your pain guy but really? Why stir the pot? Now if there is comment from him....yeah I agree..but I do not see why to bring it up....am I missing something? Sorry to hear you think that I am siding with fraudulent behavior. Guess you don't know me well enough to know this....I am not know for not being direct.....I shoot straight from the hip. I speak my mind even if it is not the favorite position. @Absentia it's ok to disagree no problems. I actually LOVE that Ryan reported a jack ass BUT DUDE Stop the hysteria! @Thomas let us know what comes of it apologize for the hijacking but seriously investigate throughly I think all of us are curious about this one

@Ryan - Thank you for posting what happened with the fraudulent activity. I don't see you as stirring the pot but rather, we can all learn from your experience with the hijacking of your apps and fraudulent reviews. It's a reminder for all of us to be diligent in keeping an eye on our hard work. @Sheri - Not all of us can keep up with all posts on this forum. So, regardless, if it happens to be related or not, if at least one of us on this thread can take something from Ryan's experience, it was well worth him posting about it.

Drama - could make a good TV series. I'm still battling what was supposed to be a 10 hour ordeal - it's the 27th hour! I took a :10 minute time-out to clear my mind. The forum always helps! I'll trust that @sheri and her buddies can work through this misunderstanding. Everyone's interested in the same thing - figuring out what the heck his happening to @Thomas Boyd - dude's a legend. In @ryanmaher777 case, he for sure has fell victim to some super-bogus behavior. Down right nasty! I'll trust that he too has found a way to look beyond a thief in the far east? My solution (to Apple's email): Howz' about we pile into a bus in Monterey, head up to Cupertino (it's about 90 minutes) and have a ho-down-throw-down party in Apple's parking lot. I can see the picket signs now. "We want justice, we want justice" The idea that Apple would ASSUME @Thomas Boyd has "cheated" his reviews is troubling. It doesn't sound like he's alone. Like @shenry suggests..what would stop our buddy in the Far East, or anyone else for that matter to hammering reviews for an app in an effort to get their account blocked, removed, terminated. Lame! We're the little guys, Apple's the big-guys. I wonder how many bogus reviews the Facebook app has? I doubt Zuck got a threatening email from Apple. I'll charter the bus - lets converge on Cupertino and end this BS

I can just imagine it... The Buzz-Bus!

Wow. Always fun to wake up to a thread like this (sarcasm intended). Having the opportunity recently to talk with RyanMaher, I can tell you that his willingness to offer help and advice relating to his own very recent experience is highly valued around here. As David would say "The dude is legit!" And since Ryan received the very same email from Apple, and has already worked through it, I would have to say that his advice is extremely on-topic. Back to the original topic... @Thomas: Please let us know what you find out. Perhaps there were some reviews in countries that we (in the U.S.) can't see right away. I hope that it all gets cleared up, and when it does we will all be the smarter for it. @David: I'm not sure if its a by-product of your recent sleep deprivation, but your recent tendencies towards violence is very encouraging. Its been a while since I put a good-old-fashioned-butt-whipping on someone! (ha!) -Chris

This thread is fun :) Moving forward... @CakeBit, @Absentia, @Rtommervik - Thanks for the support :) I'll post any new info regarding my experience with my similar situation if any new developments occur. @Chris - Thanks again for the kind words! Hopefully you meant "dude" lol @David - Can I ride shotgun? :) Thanks again for all your hard work and recent sleep deprivation. I don't believe Apple is assuming we are cheating, but I believe they have a system in place that gets alerted if suspicious activity happens on any account. Like 22 reviews in one day from the same IP. I'll definitely post any new findings :)

I'm a little suspicious of the 75 downloads of my app on one day. All the otherdays around then are have about 5

LOL. Edited my post above. @Ryan, you've been promoted from Dud to Dude!

@David EXACTLY!!!!! :)

Hope it works out for you.

I'm starting to really enjoy reading this post! Shows how diverse the forums are. So just as a quick update: I have received an email from Apple. They are not willing to discuss this via email, so they have arranged to call me tomorrow to discuss this. I hope all is good news and we can put a reason to this weirdness.

@Thomas. Great detective work! Very interested in that call for sure!

Hi all, So I wanted to bring all the news that I've received. First of all, I just hung up from a phone call with a senior executive at iTunes Connect. We had a call for 48 mins 16 secs. I was given a lot of information about this case. I first asked the simple question: "Why?" She said that suspicious peaks in reviews/ratings/stars are alerted to the Apple Developer Team. They investigate and send an alert to the developer if 'we' are thought guilty. I, as it happened, was thought to be guilty of violating the terms and conditions. Who reads the terms anyway? So the reason why my Woodstock app came up on the radar is because there was a massive peak in sales on 12th November. This was all from the USA and I'm not too concerned about this. However, on the 13th November, I got 28 reviews from South-Eastern Asain app stores. I only have four reviews. This was brought up onto the radar. But more worryingly is that Vietnam was included in the list. In actual fact, 15 of them were from Vietnam. Apple thought that I was travelling in Asia and that I was paying people to review on my behalf. All the reviews were five star. But even more worrying, is that after tracking the Apple ID, it was the same as BlackWhite's. All the other reviews came from Apple IDs that are almost the same with one different character. Here's and example: [email protected] [email protected] With the evidence that Ryan has given, BlackWhite (our Vietamese villain) seems to be attacking me. Maybe to get me terminated, or to create an almost identical app. I'm not the type to get angry, but he's testing my nerves. Even seeing he is trying is deeply concerning. So you can see this is very suspicious. I don't want my app copied, like Ryan. He is testing us too much. This surely cant be tolerated. I will keep a close watch on his account.

@Thomas Boyd, Was Apple understanding?

Your app has definitely been targeted Thomas, but I doubt it is personal (i.e. directed at you). I very much sympathise with your position. Presumably Apple now see your side of the story; what are Apple now going to do? Alan

To end everything, I told the people at Apple that I was not to blame. They will keep a close eye, on my behalf, without being against me. As much as I can tell, Apple were understanding. I also told them that we know of a guy around the forums that copies app and comes from Vietnam. She asked me whether I wanted to set up an investigation into this guy. I agreed that to start an investigation, that will look into his provisioning profiles and stuff to see if a potential copy app might be in the making. They will undertake a full investigation, looking at all his apps and trying to find if he's been doing this with all his apps.

Wow. Yup eating my words! Why? How can one person have so much torment to do such a thing? Why is he still a member? What will prevent ANYONE from doing this? This whole mess is so unbelievable. Thomas incredible that you were able to talk to the head cheese at Apple.....wouldn't surprise me a bit if you start running things there. My main purpose of my rant is that there are literally countries that survive on this maliciousness thinking :Nigerian emails of lost relatives ....WE CAN'T run around scared all the time! WE CAN'T GENERALIZE! We can't live life in fear! But then again we can't turn a blind eye to too it!ONE PERSON?????? Really ? This sickens me! Does anyone remember when we had several members sign up at once from the same country? We thought it was a classroom of kids? Has the whole site been attacked? I purposely fought this being naive. Fact: Buzztouch has a security issue! Solution:????? Do we lock it down like Apple did when they were hack? What a nightmare! Ok I am with you guys now....SKY IS FALLING! ERIK THE VIKING ----THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eid8vK0s7sY Well, atleast we know and sorry guys I guess limit my reviews on buzztouch apps to be "helpful" DANG IT! Thomas you are the best ever! Thanks for letting us know :) No more Asia trips for you! Silly image to even try to see you handing out a dollar here in there for a review UGH! PS OK READY to PUNCH SOMEONE IN THE NOSE NOW!

@Thomas Boyd, BlackWhite's developer account was revoked, although he could always open another one.

FYI -- I have alerted David to this latest turn of events. It's good that Apple has heuristics in place to sniff out mischief. I am extremely pleased the Apple manager took the time to truly understand the situation. It seems they have ways to shut down the malicious activity. It will take a bit more time for them to collect sufficient evidence to take the appropriate measures. Thomas -- you are much more mature than your calendar years on this earth. Keep up that chin and keep marching forward to your bountiful destiny. -- Niraj

@Thomas: Like @Niraj mentions, stick with this, you're doing lots of folks lots of good. Being the victim of any crime is always SO FRUSTRATING. Totally get it. As far as BlackWhite goes, surely removing his account from Apple, or Buzztouch (which has been done) is not at all going to stop his behavior. Like @CakeBit mentions, It would take BlackWhite :05 minutes to re-create his Apple account (or any account) in our modern world of "self serve." Sucks but true. @Sheri: "OK, I'm with you guys" - this is good. This is NOT GOOD. "Has the whole site been attacked? " or "Fact: Buzztouch has a security issue! Solution:????" You're missing the point here. BlackWhite's gaming of Apple's review system, and causing the issue with @Thomas's app investigation has ZERO to do with Buzztouch. His previous "copy cat behaviors" are also NOT RELATED To Buzztouch. The idea that you would label these as "security issues" and "facts" about Buzztouch only creates more work for us. You can imagine how many questions and emails we get when members use language like this. Of course our community makes it easier to find targets. Of course our software makes it easier to figure out what to copy and who to harress. But, Buzztouch isn't to blame here. Anxious to hear more.

@David Totally get where you are coming from. IN FACT ...that was my argument for not "putting out" one guy.. ...or "blaming" anyone..... Said it from the beginning, I am not taking the most favorable position..... Hopefully, you know better than anyone how appreciative and thankful I am for this community the incredible things I have learned and I am quite sensitive this crap is going on... But with that said, it's no secret that there is a real problem. I am just the idiot that pointed the problem out...."I am with you guys" ALWAYS!!!! But not when it comes on ganging up or singling out one individual yeah I got pissed especially when EVERYONE is taking someone's copy or code and manipulating it in some way .... a part of learning in a way but this Black and White dude well it's not all Black and White until today.....now that the facts are out there We know is a complete jerk for what he did...unfortunately there is other out there and more will come. ----human nature The language I am modeling is the same crap I have been hearing over and over...All the countless hours, all the tears and screams and for what? One person can change it? NO IT IS NOT A BUZZTOUCH FAULT AT ALL!!!!! It's more ok there is a problem I am not hiding from it....What I am going to do....thankful for the Ryan's & Thomas's out there is pick up my big girl pant and lock it down......hopefully EVERYONE will take notice and do the same thing.... David I think you are the most incredible and most smartest guys I know! But you can't do it all....I hope one day more people will stop depending on you and picking up their big girl/boy pants and locking it down as well....take more responsibility just like Thomas has and get answers.....IT IS HAPPENING IT WILL HAPPEN but because of Buzztouch we should be thankful to understand this craps goes on an in a community help one another out not break each other up and build our OWN ship

:)

@Thomas - Glad to to hear you are making progress! They should be removing those reviews ASAP. Let me know if I can help in any way. :)

They removed the reviews the same day, so even I can't access them in my iTunes Connect panel.

@Thomas - Well there's possibly one good thing you could take from this whole saga, you now know that you have an App that someone thought was worth stealing! Maybe you should put a price on it!