[Ben]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/27/iphone_admob/

The basic story is stray ads served by AdMob that contain premium rate numbers, and iPhone OS dialling these numbers when tapped. The result is some unexpected call costs to users.

Allowing third party adverts to come through to otherwise approved iPhone apps has always seemed a little strange to me. It's a gaping attack vector and ripe for scams and, well, stuff like this. I'm amazed that Apple has bowed to in-app ads quite so easily given their otherwise iron grip on the iPhone platform.

[miffed]

...or not cashed in on them ! Does seem strange that they'd be so rigorous with other aspects of approval , yet let stuff like this slip through

I suspcet this loophole will be closed soon !

[The Mullet of G]

Agreed, it is remarkably lapse from a company who generally keep a fairly tight grip on the reigns. I expect there must be a reason for it, as I can't see it just being an oversight, although you never know.

Personally though its not likely to effect me as I'm using an ipod touch. :)

The other one that surprised me was the amount of paid apps that are just a collection of stolen pictures from the internet, I know its probably not Apples job to check stuff like that, but they are effectively making it possible for people to profit from theft or copyright infringement. I suspect its only a matter of time before they put the foot down though.