Google has been forced to shut down all paid extensions after a sudden spike in fraudulent transactions on the official Chrome online store. As a precaution, the company has suspended the publication or update of all commercial extensions. The suspension includes all extensions that require an upfront payment, recurring monthly payments, or offer in-app purchases.
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Google engineers reported that these fraudulent transactions began on a large scale earlier this month. The ban, a temporary solution to prevent new fraudulent charges from happening, had an impact on all app developers, including premium ones like Dashlane, Comeet, etc. According to Simeon Vincent, Chrome extension developer lawyer at Google, "This is a temporary measure to stop this influx as we look for long-term solutions to combat the broader pattern of 39; abuse." Although there are no updates on when the suspension will be removed. While Google only announced the suspension last week, app developers suggest that the search engine giant is quietly blocking updates for all paid extensions. After the suspension, if a developer tries to update an existing paid extension or publish a new paid extension, they receive an error message saying "Spam and store location". The news comes shortly after Mozilla removed some 200 shady Firefox add-ons that turned out to be involved in malicious activity or were stealing user data from a similar cleanup unit. via ZDNet