Jungle Run Game On The Apple App Store Linked To A Sketchy Online Casino

Kosta Eleftheriou has made significant efforts to expose apps available for iOS devices that are scams. Recently, he discovered a game called Jungle Run that appears on the surface to be a standard 2D coin running game. However, in his investigation, Eleftheriou found that the game is linked to a crypto currency-funded casino based in Turkey.

The fact that the game made it onto the App Store shows that Apple's policies are far from perfect. The game described itself as a "fun running game" but had some questionable aspects from the get-go. When the app was installed, the terms of service appeared inside a window that floated inside the app.

The terms were reportedly stored on a Pastebin page that only appeared for a moment before disappearing. It seems the app was benign except for those who lived in Turkey based on their IP address. For users in Turkey, instead of seeing the game they expected, they were greeted with a web-based casino that asked the user to fund their account with cash or cryptocurrency.

The request tried to get people to bypass the Apple in-app purchase system. Eleftheriou says the scam app has been running for months. It doesn't appear that the game has been particularly popular as it has no reviews and hasn't been updated since January 2021.

What's more surprising is that the app is still available on the App Store currently. While the app itself has no reviews, there are apparently some reviews of the online casino. Users who deposited money with the casino itself have not received the payouts promised. There have been no comments from Apple on the scam app, and it's unclear when or if it will be removed from the App Store.

[Update] The app has finally been taken down by Apple.