Wahab Khan 
The tech giant Apple is unable to catch scammed apps on its devices. This time, these apps are present on the Mac and do not allow you to quit them unless you identify their tricks or pay for their subscriptions.
Kosta Eleftheriou, the hunter and developer of scam apps, has a reputation for catching shocking scams. They make it beyond the review process for Apple. Once again, the developer has attracted a new harvest of shaded apps being paddled from the App Store.
This time, they are ready to disturb users on Mac devices. Scammed apps use pop-ups to make it hard to close an app without paying the disgraceful subscription prices. Apple seems to be ignorant of such cases despite its claim that its App Review process continues to keep devices and users safe.
My Metronome is the app to have started the hunt on Mac. Discovered by Edoardo Vacchi, this app locks the user up and does not let them quit using the menu bar or keyboard shortcuts unless they agree to pay $9.99 as a monthly subscription fee.
According to the online reviews, users can make a force quit to get rid of the unwanted app. Seemingly, the app developer has played with numerous techniques in the past years to prevent people from closing the pay-wall. He pointed out some other apps still available on the App Store with the same behavior.
Interestingly, Apple outwardly removed My Metronome sometime after Eleftheriou talked about it on Twitter. Accordingly, if you try to open the app link, a window message will pop up, saying it is no longer available in your region. Apple paid no attention to the request for comment about whether or not it would take the specific app down. It also did not respond to how the company could put such apps in its App Review in the first place.
Jeff Johnson, an App developer, was able to discover Music Paradise. LLC is the company that created the Metronome app. The said company has a link to Groove Vibes, another App Store Developer. According to the privacy policies posted on both developers’ sites, they have the registration of the same address and both talk about the identical legal entity.
Some experts decided to test those shaded apps themselves. They promoted Mac App Store and got another app, Music Paradise Player, designed by Music Paradise LLC. Experts also downloaded the entire catalog named Groove Vibes. They immediately received a pop-up window asking to pay up to $10 or a recurring subscription. Some apps from Groove Vibes functioned appropriately, allowing the users to quit them with a keyboard or menu bar.
On the other hand, Music Paradise Player and two other apps from the same developer deactivated the quit option of the menu bar. These apps do not allow users to press the close button or let the keyboard shortcuts help. These apps continued to open despite the experts trying to quit using the command keys followed by the escape button.
The encouraging aspect of such experiments is that these apps do not completely lock users out of their devices as ransomware does. They should be some ways to quit them even if a user does not know the usage of the force quit button.
