Originally Posted by
Joe920 Wow, nice reporting. So how does this scam work? Is it the original publisher of an app that sticks a new icon on their app and resubmits? Or does the code get stolen and resubmitted with a new icon?
I don't belive its the original publisher as there are now to many with similar characteristics.
*the majority of the resubmitted ones has a new publisher with only that game
*if you start the game there is sometimes a new splash screen (I have seen logos from the hunger games in non related games) - why would the original publisher steal the icon and insert a stolen "the hunger games" splash screen when resubmitting the game?
*some of them show still the original game title inside the game (look at the first example "Soldier Stickman" the original game title is even on the screenshot)
*there seems to be some ranking manipulation or they have an effective way to climb the US new+rising charts shortly after release. From 50-100 and after that there are way less of them. The majority is between 1-50 of new+rising. But the normal top free chart are also starting to get filled slowly.
I noticed them around the start of last month.