Report: Rising numbers of fleeceware in the App Store


Security develop Sophos has a new report on a growing trend of what it calls fleeceware, or bait and switch apps. The apps are listed as free in Apple's App Store, but the advertised features require a subscription or payment.

If you think one of these apps is free and install it, the app presents you with a â€"free trial” notification immediately upon launching the app for the first time. This notification prompts the user to provide payment card details. In some cases, most of the useful features of the app will only be usable if you sign up for the subscription. Some users may sign up to subscribe without reading the fine print, which includes the actual cost of the subscriptions.


The report says the most common type of these apps are "image editors, horoscope/fortune-telling/palm readers, QR code/barcode scanners, and face filter apps for adding silly tweaks to selfies."