The FTC case reveals how subscription scam networks get away with using the app store

A new case filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a demonstration of how difficult it has become to direct app stores for scam apps. The lawsuit alleges that a company known as Genesis Tech defrauded consumers and moved funds overseas through shell companies designed to hide its identity and hide its assets.

The Genesis Tech network allegedly included a series of subsidiaries incorporated in Cyprus and operating in Ukraine, which marketed its operating systems to US consumers. Among its products were fitness and nutrition apps MadMuscles, Harna, and Unimeal for Amo Apps Limited; PDF Guru and PDF Master from GuruDocs Limited; fashion app Lumi from Bramol Limited; horoscope app Nebula by Obrio Limited; practice and personal productivity applications under the brand Wisey by Koflimin Limited; and others.

From early 2023 to mid-2025, these five product companies accounted for nearly a quarter of a billion in global revenue.

The lawsuit also notes that, in the 12 months ending September 2025, transactions through all of the company’s linked PayPal accounts totaled nearly $700 million.

The case highlights a growing challenge for Apple and Google, as subscription scams evolve beyond individual apps into complex networks of shell companies. Genesis Tech, for example, registered new businesses and created multiple merchant accounts to hide its identity, the suit claims, and transferred money it made across borders between different affiliates.

By continuing to create new accounts, the app publisher has been able to evade fraud monitoring programs for years, the FTC explained.

Like other scam subscription apps that have plagued today’s app stores that have drawn scrutiny from regulators and consumer advocates, Genesis Tech’s products made it easy to sign up but difficult to cancel.

When a company promotes its products as free or low-cost, registered consumers will experience an automatic renewal subscription. Sometimes, the company also charged customers for additional products without their knowledge or consent or charged them twice.

The company also made cancellations difficult by leaving cancellation options on its websites and apps, and often continued to charge customers without authorization, the FTC lawsuit said.

Genesis Tech’s practices violate the FTC Act and the Online Consumer Confidence Act (ROSCA), the complaint states. It also names Stamatis Skianis, Oksana Kucher, Iryna Oleksyn, Olga Garbuzenko, Rostyslav Ivanitsa, and Viktoriia Savchuk as co-defendants in the lawsuit, which will be heard in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

TechCrunch has reached out to Genesis Tech for comment on the publicly available email addresses of the subsidiaries named in the lawsuit. Comment was not immediately provided.

The FTC has taken mobile app makers to court before, after investigating and settling cases with anonymous Q&A youth app NGL, dating app champion Match, gig app Handy, children’s app maker HyperBeard, and related players, such as mobile ad company Tapjoy or data vendor X-Mode, among others.