How to report potential abuse in Aptoide without becoming a member?

Question

The Aptoide store is an alternative platform where you can get Android apps.

I found an app on the Aptoide store via Google that has a size of 3.3 MB. The same app with the same app version in the F-Droid store has only a size of 1.1 MB. So I assume that this app is infected by malware.

The Aptoide's info about the suspicious app is

Xxxx is Unknown

This classification was assigned because: there is not enough information about the application in Aptoide Anti-Malware platform.

• Scanned with Anti-Virus: Zoner Anti-Virus Sophos Anti-Virus AptoideGuard Malware Analyzer

No Infections Detected No Infections Detected

On the Aptoide website belonging to the app, there is a "report abuse" button but this requires a login (which I don't have and don't want to have)

In the stores impressum, I found an email address so I wrote an email to the Aptoide store admin. I got an automated email reply that I should use a web form to contact Aptoide with a link to the web form. So I filled in the web form and submitted it.

This was a week ago and since then nothing happened. The suspicious app is still available in the store and I got no email response.

Is there any other channel to Aptoide where I can report potential abuse without becoming a member?

Answer 1

To answer my own question: Non-member complaint was not possible in my case.

After registering as a new member and then using the "report abuse" link, Aptoide's "copyright infringement-workflow" did the job after one week.

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After sending the second form I registered as a new user, loaded the page with the potential malicious app, flagged it as "virus", wrote a comment and pressed the "report abuse" button and send my text.

As a result of "report abuse" activity, I got an automated email

Thanks for your email!

Please submit your support request in this link

The form request is essential for us to help you, the ticket generated by this email will stay on hold with low priority until you send us your request via the form below!

where the link points to https://aptoide.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new

After one additional week, I got an email that the app has been removed from the store.

It was a reply to pushing the "report abuse" link that was made to handle copyright problems with the standard email-text for this use case

Aptoide is deeply committed with the respect of the IPR of Android Developers.

Nevertheless, the suspicious app is not available anymore.

Answer 2

First: Different sizes do not necessarily mean the bigger one is infected with malware. Or rather, that might depend on your definition of malware: F-Droid compile .apk files themselves, and while doing that, often exclude proprietary parts – such as ad modules.

Second: Aptoide has security checks running on their .apk files. You should find a shield in the app description: Green = checked and OK, Yellow = checked and something suspicious found, Red = checked and infection found¹. You can also find details on the checks, where e.g. signatures are compared with other markets (usually Google Play).

Third: Different repositories at Aptoide have a different trust-level. For example, the repository named "Apps" is manually curated by Aptoide staff, and hence quite trustable.

Forth: You can contact Aptoide via a form on their website. You'll have to reveal an email address for that, so they can contact you back.

Fifth: For more details, please see How safe is it to use Aptoide?. Especially check this answer from Paulo (co-founder of Aptoide) and my own answer.

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¹_{You will never find the red shield, though – that's only visible for staff. At the same time a red shield is attached, the app is made unavailable for the public.}