Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:
If you’ve been on TikTok this year, you’ve more than likely
encountered ads for Freecash. The app has been marketed as
a way to make money just by scrolling TikTok — and jumped to the
top of the app stores in recent months, peaking at the No. 2
position in the U.S. App Store.In truth, Freecash pays users to play mobile games — all the
while collecting a heaping amount of sensitive data, according to
cybersecurity company Malwarebytes. […]On Monday, after being contacted by TechCrunch for comment, Apple
pulled Freecash from its App Store. As of Monday afternoon, the
app was still listed in the Google Play store. (It has since been
removed).
As I have repeatedly written, it boggles my mind why Apple doesn’t have an App Store “bunco squad” that targets scam and fraud apps that are popular and/or high-grossing.
It’s folly to think that the App Store could ever be completely free of scam apps. But it’s absurd that this app Freecash rose to #2 in the App Store, with millions of downloads, and Apple only took a look at and removed it after TechCrunch asked about the app.
Pieter Arntz, writing at Malwarebytes:
The landing pages featured TikTok and Freecash logos and invited
users to “get paid to scroll” and “cash out instantly,” implying a
simple exchange of time for money. Those claims were misleading
enough that TikTok said the ads violated its rules on financial
misrepresentation and removed some of them.Once you install the app, the promised TikTok paycheck vanishes.
Instead, Freecash routes you to a rotating roster of mobile games — titles like Monopoly Go and Disney Solitaire — and offers
cash rewards for completing time‑limited in‑game challenges.
Payouts range from a single cent for a few minutes of daily play
up to triple‑digit amounts if you reach high levels within a
fixed period.The whole setup is designed not to reward scrolling, as it claims,
but to funnel you into games where you are likely to spend money
or watch paid advertisements.
Dystopian. And it’s gross that the follow-the-money chain here ultimately leads to pay-to-win games from established brands like Hasbro (Monopoly Go) and, of all companies, Disney (Disney Solitaire). Look at these games’ App Store listings (a) their in-app purchases are clearly meant to capitalized on addicts, and (b) their privacy report cards are appalling. And Apple is taking 30 percent of all this. Honest to god, how would it be any worse if Apple started selling cigarettes in its retail stores? Because there’d be butts to clean up outside the glass doors?
