The swift popularity of Sora led to a surge of fraudulent apps on the App Store, as scammers attempted to cash in. After OpenAI introduced its invite-only mobile app for generating videos last week, a wave of counterfeit apps appeared on Apple’s App Store, many claiming to be “Sora” or “Sora 2”—the latter referencing the new AI video technology launched with the official app.
Somehow, these copycat apps managed to bypass Apple’s App Review. They were publicly available on the App Store, even though they used a name trademarked by OpenAI, which was already recognized in the tech world before the app’s official release.
Appfigures, an app analytics firm, shared with TechCrunch that more than a dozen apps using the “Sora” name appeared on the App Store following the official launch. Over half of these included “Sora 2” in their titles. (Apple commentator John Gruber identified one such app, dubbing it the “App Store scam of the week.”)
A number of these apps weren’t new releases. Some had been available on the App Store—sometimes under different names—since earlier this year or even the previous year. These imitators, which were also present on Google Play, had collectively reached about 300,000 downloads, with over 80,000 of those occurring after the official Sora app became available. (For comparison, OpenAI has reported that the official Sora app has been downloaded 1 million times.)
Almost all of these fake apps were updated shortly after the launch of OpenAI’s Sora app, often changing their names to take advantage of increased interest and search traffic.
It remains uncertain how these apps managed to evade Apple’s review process; however, Appfigures noted that Apple has since removed many of them from the App Store.
Among the fake apps, the most prominent was called “Sora 2 – AI Video Generator,” which was clearly designed to attract users searching for “sora.” This app alone was downloaded over 50,000 times after the official app’s release.
At the time of writing, a handful of apps using the Sora name are still available, despite the risk of misleading users. For instance, “PetReels — Sora for Pets” has only managed a few hundred downloads. Another, “Viral AI Photo Maker: Vi-sora,” has tried to incorporate the Sora name but has not gained much attention.
One app using the “Sora 2” branding (Sora 2 – Video Generator Ai) has performed somewhat better, accumulating over 6,000 downloads so far.
Altogether, these apps have generated more than $160,000 in revenue—a significant sum given their brief existence.
Apple was contacted for an explanation regarding the approval of Sora-branded apps and whether the remaining ones would be removed, but did not reply before this article was published.
