Someone published copies of my add-on on AMO

Add-ons addons.mozilla.org
#41

The latest clone-extension I have found, has an “upgraded experience on AMO”.

Now with a custom icon and a long very “creative” description:

image
image1085×1155 165 KB

I’m proud of xIFr. I think I have made a great tool with that. But it has never been able to “edit metadata tags” or “compare metadata across multiple image files”.

And nor can an exact copy of xIFr.

I haven’t reported it yet. I guess I have to update my “standard reporting text”, and add lies to capabilities claimed in the description.

@Edward_Sullivan, any news on why a couple of earlier reported clones hasn’t been removed? Maybe especially the oldest, MetaVision Explorer uploaded Jan 11 by the account with the not very spam-like name “Instagram Reels Download - Snapinsta”? It has been reported twice (by me).

#42

Sorry for my continuously postings here, but I want to keep focus on this very annoying problem.

The latest xIFr clone dropped the extra long description and custom icon from the previous one. We are back to standard “placeholder icon” and a short about-description. But experiments from the spammer hasn’t stopped…

The latest clone-extension is marked as compatible with Firefox for Android, and some user(?) has given it a 5-star review.

image
image858×490 43 KB

But the extension doesn’t even work in Firefox for Android. The extension requires the contextmenus/menus API to work, and that API ain’t even supported in the Android browser.

1 Like
#43

No worries about too much posting, the more detail the better. I am still awaiting feedback on this – I haven’t forgotten you!

3 Likes
#44

Thanks to Ed and the reviewers for the latest clean-up.

All remaining xIFr-clones on AMO I had discovered to date has been removed today.

That means that a total of 43 xIFr-clones has been found and removed since middle of November!

I have been very insisting regarding the clones of my own xIFr extension. But hope progress also is made identifying and removing clones of other extensions.

1 Like
#45

I haven’t seen any new clones of xIFr since late March. There used to be posted at least one new clone every week.

I know Mozilla/AMO have made some initiatives to get rid of clones. But I thought they were more “reactive” than “proactive”. But maybe not? Looks very encouraging and promising so far ! :smiley:

How about you @hans_squared? While I have mostly been focused on my own xIFr, you have looked at the bigger picture. Any idea if clone-spamming has stopped in general, or is it only me who is lucky about xIFr?

1 Like
#46

I couldn’t find any new clone extensions in https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?sort=updated&type=extension
But there’s a trivial extension called “YT Open in Muted Tab v223” with online gambling spam in the uploader’s profile.
Looks like it’s the same old spammer, he’s just changed tactics.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q="YT+Open+in+Muted+Tab"&t=lm&ia=web finds a few deleted extensions on AMO, so Mozilla is taking this seriously :slight_smile:

2 Likes