as a mobile developer, the amount of spam i get on android is ridiculous...

[purbeast0]

it's crazy how much spam you get from people trying to rate your app high for money, people trying to advertise you for money, people trying to get you to put their ads in your app, and people trying to host tournaments and stuff for you from money. i just woke up and had 3 emails like this, and i usually get a couple a week.

We noticed that your app just got into the Top New Paid Apps Section in Play Store.But right now its not even in the Top 300 Rankings in this section and has just 0 ratings and 0 reviews.We checked out app and found that it has very good potential.We can help you increase apps rankings and reviews in Play Store and thus generate more sales.Let us know if you are interested.

Hello, my name is Carl Chu, a cofounder of Opineer (www.opineer.com).

I came across your business at Google Play and wanted to reach out to you personally to introduce Opineer.

Opineer is an online discussion community for entrepreneurs to share their opinions and receive instant feedback through polls and discussion threads.

We, entrepreneurs, all face business dilemmas and seek opinions to get new thoughts on how to tackle the issues. Whenever you are put into the situation, get help and answers to all your never ending questions from Opineer. I believe that joining our fast growing community will be of huge benefit for you, and your involvement will enrich the quality of our community.

Here are what you can do at Opineer:
1. Promote your business/project/campaign
2. Submit a question and receive instant feedback
3. Share your opinion simply by voting on questions
4. Share your opinion in depth by starting a discussion
5. Find out how other entrepreneurs think by our real-time graph
6. Create a group to survey your audience and customers

Visit our website at www.opineer.com. There are so many entrepreneurs who are eager to share their insights with you at Opineer!

Thank you very much for taking time to read this email and I wish your company every success in the future.

Skillz is the leading cash and virtual currency tournament SDK for mobile games. We recently launched on the App Store and are now selecting high-quality partners to grow with us. I think tournaments could be a fun addition that improves the game’s retention and monetization.

Here’s a bit of background on us:

- 6M+ tournaments in 4 months and counting
- 23M+ Skillz downloads
- We’ve been featured in WSJ, Pocket Gamer, and Forbes
- We have 250+ partners ranging from indie developers to publicly traded studios like Glu Mobile

Are you available later this week or early next for a 15-minute intro call to tell you more about Skillz and the benefits of being a partner?

Looking forward to talking,

never once have i gotten anything in regards to my ios stuff. it's just crazy how shady it is that there are so many companies who will write reviews for you if you pay them.

/weak rant

 

[Soundmanred]

k.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

most of it is probably automated. I would say marketing your app/game is pretty important so paying for reviews to get traction isn't a horrible idea.

you should try to get your app featured on appsumo or something.

 

[MrDudeMan]

I've had literally the same experience. To date, there have been zero solicitations for my iOS games and probably hundreds for my Android games. It's quite annoying, actually.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Reviews have been worthless for MANY years.

Companies HAVE been paying other companies to produce them for YEARS.

Trend started with Newegg......

And it's crazy how many people STILL take "reviews" seriously!!!!

 

[MrDudeMan]

Reviews have been worthless for MANY years.

Companies HAVE been paying other companies to produce them for YEARS.

Trend started with Newegg......

And it's crazy how many people STILL take "reviews" seriously!!!!

You're exaggerating by a huge amount. You can tell which reviews are real pretty easily. Real reviews mention positives and negatives that make sense. Fake reviews don't.

 

[purbeast0]

You're exaggerating by a huge amount. You can tell which reviews are real pretty easily. Real reviews mention positives and negatives that make sense. Fake reviews don't.

he's pretty clueless about 90% of the stuff he comments on.

 

[rudeguy]

he's pretty clueless about 100% of the stuff he comments on.

FTFY

He's another one of the new breed of posters: comment on everything like you are an expert. Reading wiki doesn't make you knowledgeable, let alone an expert you dumb shits.

Back on track: I feel you beasty. Since I started buying and selling phones and phone parts, I can't even begin to keep up with my inbox. If you aren't part of an Outlook rule, chances are I will never see your email. The really shitty part is my Linkedin is jacked too. I used to go on there everyday to network and find new suppliers/buyers. Now my inbox is filled with junk and the posts I follow are ruined.

I understand the need to market, I understand gorilla marketing but there is a point where you just become a pest. I never used to like to do business over the phone but its becoming a must for me now.

 

[smackababy]

I wonder what differentiates Android from iOS so much in terms of shills. Is is just easier to make a Google Play account and review than it is on iOS?

 

[mrjminer]

Somewhat related, I noticed something in my Junk folder from a company doing something similar with a domain I have had lying around. Doing an "SEO analysis" and marketing across review sites, and various other shit. Yea, it's just a standard GoDaddy domain is registered page.

I think there's going to be a continual upswing of these fake review companies on all fronts as data gathering tools continue to mature to the level of one-click gathering of everything. I've noticed that fake comments across blogs and what not are starting to automate incorporation of the content/subject matter already (though I suppose it is difficult to differentiate this between just poor English of a live person, I've just noticed an increased quantity which makes me think it's automated)

 

[purbeast0]

Somewhat related, I noticed something in my Junk folder from a company doing something similar with a domain I have had lying around. Doing an "SEO analysis" and marketing across review sites, and various other shit. Yea, it's just a standard GoDaddy domain is registered page.

I think there's going to be a continual upswing of these fake review companies on all fronts as data gathering tools continue to mature to the level of one-click gathering of everything. I've noticed that fake comments across blogs and what not are starting to automate incorporation of the content/subject matter already (though I suppose it is difficult to differentiate this between just poor English of a live person, I've just noticed an increased quantity which makes me think it's automated)

it might be automated. i had an exchange with one of the guys one time too it was pretty funny. i asked him to stop spamming me and he said it wasn't spam but he would take me off the list.

LITERALLY about 10 minutes later i got another email from him, same exact person. i think i just responded something like "well so much for you not spamming me..." which he replied back about how he was sorry or some shit.

i just find that whole business model shady/unethical anyways.

 

[purbeast0]

I wonder what differentiates Android from iOS so much in terms of shills. Is is just easier to make a Google Play account and review than it is on iOS?

all you need to review an app on android is a google account on an android device. so you can make tons of fake gmail accounts, log in on android devices, buy/download the app, then write a review.

with apple i think you need an itunes account and stuff, plus i don't think the ios reviews go live immediately. i've written a couple reviews and it took like a day for me to be able to see it. i'm not sure if there is moderation or not though.

 

[Newell Steamer]

OP linked spam sites,... I clicked on them and now I own a mansion in Belize, a diamond mind in Africa and the rail road system of the Maldives.

The ownership titles have been mailed to me next day air priority.

 

[BUTCH1]

You're exaggerating by a huge amount. You can tell which reviews are real pretty easily. Real reviews mention positives and negatives that make sense. Fake reviews don't.

Amazon is pretty decent IMO, one has to keep in mind that people sometimes are reluctant to admit they've bought a POS because it make them look dumb. Other times I've seen brutal reviews, all negative about something that is a total POS, take "Weedeater one" for example and Google it, I own one and it is a total POS and almost every review about it reflects that, I've been relatively lucky, mine still works but in all it's the worst $650 I've ever spent, I got it when it first came out and the reviews were generally positive as it does give a nice cut and it's cheap, then as a few years rolled by and they started falling apart the reviews went to all negative and rightfully so.

 

[purbeast0]

woke up to two more of these today, this is ridiculous.

Congratulations on current level in the Sweden store in Top New Paid category. Your app got there with rating of 5.0.

Do you know that 88% of people who read this email improved rank of their app in Google Play Top by at least 153 positions?

We prepared your app ranking history for you. Check it out:
Date Position Category Country
2014-06-18 193 Top New Paid Sweden
Free service. Updates once per month. if you wish to get full analysis of your app ranking per day for all countries then pls click here to get free access to the tracking database.
Are you happy with your app position in Google Play? If not then do not worry. We can help!

The best way to get higher in top is a download count. One of the best ways - have a high ratings and long custom positive reviews that made by real people.

This service can help you with that.

Hello, This is Chris Yackulic Owner / Editor-In-Chief of Androidheadlines.com. We are one of the top Android News sites with near Two Million Readers Monthly.

If you don’t mind my advice, in order to ramp up your sales and installs your application needs more marketing and branding. You need to get your application on major news sites or it runs the risk of being buried in the Google Play Store like so many others. Applications are invisible unless properly marketed! I would like to share an application marketing secret with you. Press releases no longer work and major sites don’t have the time to go over the endless amount of spam sent to us from PR companies. The chances of getting your application reviewed and marketed on a major android news site is very small. Hope of people stumbling upon your application is a gamble that rarely pays off. Are you willing to take that gamble? Or change the odds in your favor....

We have the solution to get your application the attention it deserves and needs to be successful!

Get your Android Application more attention with our Paid Android App Review Service. Just because you build a great application, it does not mean the right audience will find it. Let’s help them find it and make your application a success.

Our paid application service guarantees your application will be reviewed by our staff. Our daily tech savvy readers should be your target niche, since they are the ones who are willing to try out the newest android applications in the android market and tell their friends about it. With near a two million readers monthly, you have an opportunity to get your application out to the android community and make your app a successful one. We are the only service of its kind, offering paid android app review service that guarantees that we review your application. We have worked with some of the largest Android Developers to help promote their applications and become some of the top applications in the Google Playstore.

Here is what our Paid Android Application Review Service has to offer:

· Your application is reviewed by our Editor. We will do a complete and thorough review of your application, including screen shots and will include your custom artwork and videos if you have any.

· You will have a final approval of your review before published. We like to keep our reviews very authentic and non-biased, so changes should be minimal.

· Your application review will be published on our site as a featured application review on the front page for 1-2 weeks where it will be exposed to near a million monthly readers. Then it will stay featured in our app review section.

· We will also publish your review to major social media outlets such as Google Plus , Twitter and Facebook, where we have over 350,000 followers.

· Our site is also indexed very quickly by search engines, so your review will be searchable among major search engines.
· A service like this on other sites may cost hundreds more.

· Here are a couple of examples of our quality reviews Link1, Link 2

I want to help you out, so I am willing to knock $150.00 off our regular price of $249.99 and offer you our services for only $99.99.

I know you believe in your app and you put a lot of hard work in it. Let’s make your hard work payoff for you! If making your Android Application a success it’s your key goal, then let us help you do it!

I look forward to hearing back from you and getting started on reviewing your application.

Chris Yackulic
androidheadlines.com

 

[pcslookout]

Deal with it? Spam filters

 

[Uppsala9496]

Deal with it? Spam filters

Way to respond a month later with such insight.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

When standards are considered android is a mess.

My first android app purchase was a screen saver. Despite my phone being listed as supported it never worked. I found a support/questions link it brought me to some college guys twitter account. I never bothered.
This was years ago and I'm sure its better now, I do feel that android is too open in everything.

 

[jana519]

Man, life as a dev is so tough, I don't think I would survive.

 

[edro]

WTH?!?

We have app developers on here?

Post your apps and I will download. (iOS only)

 

[cKGunslinger]

I get emails that offers me the opportunity to make money to use my revered reputation on forums to help promote exciting products to my peers.

And on an unrelated note, have you guys heard about this new product called [redacted]? It's totes uber cool!

 

[Wyndru]

Is android development a good field to be in? I just realized my niece is writing apps now in school. She is in 10th grade and they taught her a little java (blue j) and then right into android SDK. She has already generated some rep on stack overflow too lol. I always forget kids grow up programming these days. Is not just a geek thing anymore.

Even in video games like minecraft, the mod computercraft, I've seen some serious code made by kids just to get a mining turtle to extract a specific ore from the ground.

 

[nickbits]

I get those types of things for my ios apps but not a lot

 

[QueBert]

I wonder what differentiates Android from iOS so much in terms of shills. Is is just easier to make a Google Play account and review than it is on iOS?

On the App store you have to own an item to review it. I just tried to review an album I hate but don't own, and it kicked me of the review part. IMHO this is how Google should do it, the Play store's full of spam and crap reviews. App store, I at least know the review is from a person who owns it. You could debate all day weather that makes the reviews good or whatever, but at least I know it's not spam.

 

[pcslookout]

So did you get a spam filter yet?