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A new lawsuit filed<\/a> by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a showcase of how hard it\u2019s become to police the app stores for scammy apps. The suit alleges that a company known as Genesis Tech defrauded consumers and routed revenues overseas through the use of shell companies designed to conceal its identity and hide its assets.<\/p>\n Genesis Tech\u2019s network allegedly included a series of subsidiaries incorporated in Cyprus and operating in Ukraine, which marketed its apps to U.S. consumers. Among its brands were fitness and nutrition apps MadMuscles, Harna, and Unimeal by Amoapps Limited<\/a>; PDF Guru and PDF Master from Gurudocs Limited<\/a>; fashion app Lumi from Bramol Limited<\/a>; horoscope app Nebula by Obrio Limited<\/a>; habit and personal productivity apps under the brand Wisey by Koflimin Limited<\/a>; and others.<\/p>\n From early 2023 to mid-2025, these five companies\u2019 product offerings accounted for nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in global revenue. <\/p>\n The suit also notes that, in the 12 months ending in September 2025, the transactions through all the company\u2019s connected PayPal accounts totalled nearly $700 million. <\/p>\n The case highlights a growing challenge for Apple and Google, as subscription scams evolve beyond individual apps into intricate networks of shell companies. Genesis Tech, for instance, registered new corporate entities and created multiple merchant accounts to hide its identity, the suit claims, and would then transfer the money it made across borders among its various corporate affiliates. <\/p>\n By continually making new accounts, the app publisher was able to avoid fraud monitoring programs for years, the FTC explains.<\/p>\n Like other scammy subscription apps plaguing today\u2019s app stores that<\/a> have drawn scrutiny<\/a> from<\/a> regulators<\/a> and consumer advocates, Genesis Tech\u2019s products made it easy to sign up but hard to cancel. <\/p>\n While the company promoted its products as free or low-cost, consumers who signed up would instead be met with auto-renewing subscriptions. At times, the company would also charge customers for extra products without their knowledge or consent or even double-charge<\/a> them.<\/p>\n The company also made cancellation difficult by omitting cancellation options from its websites and apps, and would often continue charging customers without authorization, the FTC\u2019s suit says. <\/p>\n Genesis Tech\u2019s practices violate the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers\u2019 Confidence Act (ROSCA), the complaint says. It also names\u00a0 Stamatis Skianis, Oksana Kucher, Iryna Oleksyn, Olga Garbuzenko, Rostyslav Ivanitsa, and Viktoriia Savchuk as co-defendants in the case, which will be tried in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n TechCrunch reached out to Genesis Tech for comment through the publicly available email addresses for the subsidiaries named in the case. A comment was not immediately provided.<\/p>\n The FTC has taken mobile app makers to court before, having investigated and settled cases with the anonymous teen Q&A app NGL<\/a>, dating app giant Match<\/a>, gig app Handy<\/a>, kids\u2019 app maker HyperBeard,<\/a> and adjacent players, like mobile ad company Tapjoy<\/a> or data broker X-Mode<\/a>, among others. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n