Windows Store flooded with scam apps and Microsoft doesn't care

Himanshu Arora

Posts: 902   +7

Last year, Microsoft's Windows Store passed the 100,000 apps mark, and by April this year, that number had climbed to over 400,000 when combining apps from the Windows and Windows Phone stores. Going by these numbers the company's platforms seems to be growing fast and big.

But does big necessarily mean good? The folks at HowToGeek have given the Microsoft's application store a clear thumbs down, saying it's full of "apps that exist only to scam people and take their money".

Searching for a popular app turns up a lot of garbage results on the first page. For example, look up VLC and you'll find many fake paid apps with VLC’s trademark icon. While some pretend to be VLC with an actual media player, others charge just to give you a link to download the free application.

windows store microsoft scams apps fake market place

In the case of VLC there's an official app named VLC for Windows 8, which appears first in the list, but things get worse when you search for popular apps that are not officially available on Microsoft's app store.

A quick comparison with Google Play Store and Apple's App Store revealed that the problem is nearly exclusive to Microsoft's Store. What's even more shocking is that unlike Google, which has a more relaxed stance on app approval, Microsoft examines each and every submission before making it available to users, suggesting that they are fine with scams in their store.

So, why isn't Microsoft concerned? It looks like the company's priority at the moment is to close the app gap between its own app stores and the ones offered by Google and Apple, with quality taking the back seat.

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Honestly there are a lot of scam apps in android too. I, personally, have not experienced this with windows phone. If this is something that is only going on in the windows 8 store then I don't see how it can be compared to iOS or android. This article seems more like a hate article than actual news.
 
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This was one of the main reasons why I sold my Surface Pro only a few weeks after buying it. At first I thought it was an awesome tablet with a very nice interface, but every time I tried finding any apps to add functionality to it, I was flooded with a ton of crap, useless apps instead. It got to the point where I didn't feel comfortable downloading apps at all anymore on the platform, as I could no longer know what was real and what wasn't.
 
Honestly there are a lot of scam apps in android too. I, personally, I have experienced this with windows phone. If this is something that is only going on in the windows 8 store then I don't see how it can be compared to iOS or android. This article seems more like a hate article than actual news.
Well I agree with you on the fact that scams on different app stores exist everywhere on each platform and not exclusively to Windows. Its pretty bad actually when you see how many are out there just messing around taking money...

This was one of the main reasons why I sold my Surface Pro only a few weeks after buying it. At first I thought it was an awesome tablet with a very nice interface, but every time I tried finding any apps to add functionality to it, I was flooded with a ton of crap, useless apps instead. It got to the point where I didn't feel comfortable downloading apps at all anymore on the platform, as I could no longer know what was real and what wasn't.
...You bought a surface pro and were concerned with the apps more than the whole platform...The whole point of a Surface Pro is that its full Windows and apps allowing for everything to be installed in any form or fashion while being held in Tablet form factor.

Either way, Microsoft does not to step up and work on keeping the scam apps down.
 
Did anyone reach out to Microsoft on this information? I checked the original article (which this article seems largely lifted from) and didn't see where the author attempted to touch base with Microsoft on this.

For myself, I haven't had the problem described in the article - but I tend to take my app recommendations from informative websites that focus on Windows like EyeOnWindows or Winsupersite. Once apps stores get over 100,000 - it becomes a pain to sift through the cruft, regardless of whether it's Apple, Google, or Microsoft.
 
A note to the author:

From what I've been told by partners and teachers developing for that store, the validation is limited to stability tests and bugs, not content. It won't be published if the app crashes at a certain point or a certain line of code needs further validation such as try-catch.
 
Honestly there are a lot of scam apps in android too. I, personally, I have experienced this with windows phone. If this is something that is only going on in the windows 8 store then I don't see how it can be compared to iOS or android. This article seems more like a hate article than actual news.

Not a hate article, the author even referened the same issue being apparent in Google's Play Store. As the article states, Microsoft supposedly has a "strict" approval process for apps but allow this garbage to abe added for the sake of boosting their numbers. Only thing is, no one cares or looks at total numbers. The App Store and Play Store aren't popular because they have the biggest total number of apps, they're popular because they get the well designed versions of the most popular services first. Microsoft isn't doing anything to help there case by allowing these random "tutorial" knock off apps.
 
This was one of the main reasons why I sold my Surface Pro only a few weeks after buying it. At first I thought it was an awesome tablet with a very nice interface, but every time I tried finding any apps to add functionality to it, I was flooded with a ton of crap, useless apps instead. It got to the point where I didn't feel comfortable downloading apps at all anymore on the platform, as I could no longer know what was real and what wasn't.
Are you joking or just trolling?
 
Google's search results are just as horrible. Can't believe the results they allow to populated after searching for certain items. E.g. searched for Microsoft's free anti-virus software, first result was scamware, but looked almost identical to Microsoft's software.
 
Who buys a surface pro for the apps. You seem like a liar or a fool.

Are you joking or just trolling?

Actually, I'm serious. If you didn't notice, I said "one of the main reasons", implying that there were others.

The primary reason I bought a Surface Pro was because of the pressure sensitive stylus. The Surface Pro, when it first came out, was the same price as the entry level Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet, but also was a fairly powerful system as well. I thought that would be awesome, as I could draw anywhere.

But the accuracy of the stylus sucked, especially around corners. I Googled and Googled, but couldn't find any solutions to improve the accuracy of the stylus.

Then I tried using it as just a tablet, but there were no usable apps for it beyond Chrome and IM+. Furthermore, I didn't really care for using the classic Windows environment on such a small screen (and I didn't have the touch/type cover), so I just didn't see any point in keeping it.

I didn't find it satisfactory as a drawing device nor as a tablet PC, so I sold it to recuperate most of the money I spent on it.
 
When you're dealing with craplications for a phone, they're pretty much all scams. Every local TV station has one for news, one for weather, and so forth.

Then you have apps for ordering pizza, Strabuck's coffee, ad naseum.

So, if all you have is a phone, and you can't figure out that VLC is free on your own, I figure it's pretty much, "caveat dumbbell".

Another salient reason I won't own a smart phone.

As far as Windows 8 goes, it's pretty much adware, isn't it? M$ is trying to herd noobs toward its
app store, ala the "Apple Game Plan".
 
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Metro apps a lot of them are not what they seem to be. Microsoft needs to check on each app being uploaded to their servers or cloud base. Some apps for Youtube replacement are just junk. USA Today still buggy sometimes is works and sometimes it doesn't work.
 
Honestly there are a lot of scam apps in android too. I, personally, have not experienced this with windows phone. If this is something that is only going on in the windows 8 store then I don't see how it can be compared to iOS or android. This article seems more like a hate article than actual news.

I haven't one on windows phone store either.
 
For a tech blog this just seems like a hit piece to get page clicks. EVERY APP STORE has this shiat in it. Where do you think the term Crapps came from?
 
You don't notice scam apps on Play Store and App Store because it's hard for them to get trough all those apps, but they do exist everywhere.
 
So, Author, please tell me. What is the definite and concrete criteria for determining a "scam app". If you can formulate it into an exact definition, that can be applied to all incoming apps, that doesn't require the use of one's personal opinion, then I will agree with you in your criticism. However, what you are really suffering from isn't "scam apps", but rather a lack of official apps from your desired developers; a lack that is shrinking by the day. I don't like apps that are useless to me, but guess what? I don't download them. No one can protect you from yourself, except you.
 
Having looked through the available apps in the Windows Store. All I have to say is that anyone who is dumb enough to download and install anything from there, deserves whatever they get. Period.
 
I've recently received a Windows phone for work. Nokia Lumia 635. OK phone: Good call quality, built in apps are fine, Office and Exchange integration is good, but the app store is terrible compared to Apple's app store. You can get "Go0gle Chrome" and such, complete with correct looking icon. Scamware, as is much of what I looked at.

As an office phone, this phone is fine, but I would not be very happy having this phone for myself, with the limited selection of apps and large amount of scamware
 
The article refers to Windows Store apps - not apps for Windows Phone. Again, I have been impressed with the quality apps in the Store, but I usually find out about good apps from reputable websites and not just downloading anything I find.

I currently have an HTC 8X Windows Phone will be upgrading to another WP device once my contract is up in December. I was looking at Nokia phones (as each of them is excellent) but I've heard enough good buzz on the HTC One M8 that I will be taking a look at that one as well.

I've recently received a Windows phone for work. Nokia Lumia 635. OK phone: Good call quality, built in apps are fine, Office and Exchange integration is good, but the app store is terrible compared to Apple's app store. You can get "Go0gle Chrome" and such, complete with correct looking icon. Scamware, as is much of what I looked at.

As an office phone, this phone is fine, but I would not be very happy having this phone for myself, with the limited selection of apps and large amount of scamware
 
MS STORE apps are nothing but a numbers game for Microsoft, and a fraud app counts just as much towards the total as any other app. So it's all good, right?
 
So the article header reads "Windows Store flooded with scam apps and Microsoft doesn't care". Who says they don't care? What quote from a Microsoft executive said this? Or is this something that the author made up in their own biased mind.
 
Honestly there are a lot of scam apps in android too. I, personally, have not experienced this with windows phone. If this is something that is only going on in the windows 8 store then I don't see how it can be compared to iOS or android. This article seems more like a hate article than actual news.


True there are scam apps on android but the article is focusing on the the fact for MS look at each app before releasing it to the marketstore where has android doesn't suggest MS dont care they just want to increase the number of app.
 
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