Haha. This happens so often, people have no idea. Every Russian bank does this, they publish seemingly unrelated apps under unrelated App Store dev accounts, share the links on their socials as fast as possible before the apps get taken down, then they just repeat the process when they need to update their apps. I guess generally they don't pop up on global/US rankings but still, people use them and they get taken down all the time.
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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Garden wall keeps getting higher
No sideloading because "security"
It's for your own good, we swear
This shit happens
All the sacrifices of having a heavily gated garden run by one company for access to software totally worth it for keeping us safe amiright?
Reason number - oh, hell, I've lost count at this point - why anything mobile app store owners say about their service should be taken with a grain of salt.
VTB Bank has been heavily sanctioned by the U.S. government for years, forcing the state-owned institution to rely on shell developer accounts and disguised apps to bypass Apple’s strict ban on sanctioned entities.
The app will almost certainly be pulled soon, but it’s always surprising that existing systems in place sometimes miss detecting apps disguised like this.