Another alleged Apple ban bypass. A different publisher name.

The screenshots tell the story.

Two featured original images show the YouTube-led advertising and the Authenticator’s wider tool set. Expand for all 28 original promotional assets across Mac, iPhone and iPad. These are current advertisements, not a before/after history or security test.

See all 26 additional screenshots

A different publisher name. An alleged return after a ban. Documented branding and privacy problems.

The name on the listing.

App name

AdBlock for Youtube - No Ads / Authenticator App| 2FA Authy

Developer / seller

Ahmad Waheed

Developer country · App ID 6689514759

Unknown · Not disclosed in checked EU provider panels; no verified registry association

Germany and Ireland provider panels identify Ahmad Waheed as non-trader and disclose no country or city. Checked 26 October 2026; sources E6 and E7. The reporter suspects Pakistan based on patterns observed in earlier reports (E40); this is recorded separately from the provider’s published disclosures.

Developer country · App ID 6788771070

Unknown · Not disclosed in checked EU provider panels; no verified registry association

Germany and Ireland provider panels identify Ahmad Waheed as non-trader and disclose no country or city. Checked 26 October 2026; sources E9 and E10. The reporter suspects Pakistan based on patterns observed in earlier reports (E40); this is recorded separately from the provider’s published disclosures.

The allegation: an Apple ban, followed by a new account under another name

The reporter alleges that another operator has managed to fool Apple’s review and account checks: after Apple banned an earlier developer account, the operator allegedly created another account under a different name and returned to the App Store. This is the reporter’s allegation, not an Apple enforcement finding obtained by this investigation.

The documented trail contains two developer identities. An earlier Whiteboard listing retained in Apple search-indexed content names Shafia Rana and links developer ID 1676116569. Fresh Whiteboard and Sudoku pages now name Ahmad Waheed and point to developer ID 6783655218. Copyright and support-contact matches provide further links between the app portfolios.

The earlier Shafia Rana profile returns HTTP 404 in the checked US and UK storefronts. Ahmad Waheed’s current catalog is available and lists the two investigated apps. These observations establish different publisher records and an unavailable earlier profile; they do not independently establish an Apple ban, why it happened, common control, or the creation of a replacement account to evade enforcement.

The Authy/YouTube branding, inaccessible privacy links and subscription prices discussed below are separately documented concerns. They should not be treated as proof of the unconfirmed account-ban allegation.

Sources: E37, E34, E32, E33, E11, E35, E36. Checked 26 October 2026.

Authy in the name. A different publisher.

The reporter alleges that placing Authy in the app title is keyword abuse intended to manipulate App Store search rankings and capture searches for Twilio’s official authenticator. The title’s use of Authy is documented; search-ranking effects and the developer’s intent were not independently measured.

Authenticator App| 2FA Authy uses the Authy product name in the same category as Twilio’s established authenticator. The actual publisher here is Ahmad Waheed. The official Twilio Authy listing is published by Authy Inc. and is listed free. The investigated app offers weekly, monthly, yearly and lifetime purchases.

The investigated icon is a blue person inside a lock; official Authy uses an interlocking-loop design on red. The evidence supports a naming and affiliation-confusion concern, not an allegation that these two icons are identical. No Twilio-affiliation disclaimer was found in the checked app description; the inaccessible legal documents could not be assessed for additional wording.

Twilio explicitly lists AUTHY among its trademarks and says third parties must not use its marks as their own product name or imply affiliation. Accurate limited references are treated differently. Our assessment is that appending Authy to the name of an independently published authenticator risks misleading shoppers. No licence or trademark-enforcement ruling was established.

The description advertises three functions: image compression, barcode/QR scanning and standard time-based one-time passwords. Support for standard two-factor codes does not establish a commercial connection with Authy. No installation, token-handling, security or payment test was performed.

Sources: E2, E8, E12, E14. Checks: 26 October 2026.

One app ID. Different names across storefronts.

The US listing calls app 6689514759 AdBlock for Youtube - No Ads, with the subtitle Adblock for Safari, Remove ads. Ireland calls the same numeric app ID Ad Blocker - Private Browser, with Ublock Origin & App Blocker. Germany retains the YouTube-led name. These differences were present in the same investigation, not observed as a dated before/after rename.

The icon uses a red rounded play-button outline and a red triangular mark on white. Official YouTube uses a filled red shape with a white triangle. The first advertising panel goes further, displaying the YouTube name and play logo prominently beneath ADS BLOCKER. Those concrete visual references support a YouTube-branding confusion concern while preserving the differences.

The description actually presents an independent private browser, with bookmarks and browsing-history controls. A compatibility reference to YouTube or Safari is not automatically a false affiliation claim, and showing service logos can describe supported websites. The concern here is the combined title, recognizable play-button treatment and prominent YouTube advertising under a different seller. Google’s brand guidance requires a distinct identity and avoidance of misleading endorsement.

No evidence establishes that this app is published, endorsed or supplied by Google, Apple or the uBlock Origin project. Whether its ad-blocking claims work was not tested. Automated icon-difference percentages in the supplied analyses are not used as copying verdicts.

Sources: E1, E5, E7, E6, E13, E15. Checks: 26 October 2026.

The privacy links do not provide a public policy

Both App Store privacy buttons point to the same Google Docs document. In an anonymous browser, that link led to Google account sign-in instead of a policy. A separate text-export request returned HTTP 401. The Authenticator terms link behaved the same way. No sign-in or access request was attempted.

AdBlock’s description supplies another privacy URL and a terms URL. Both literal links returned HTTP 404 with Google’s file-not-found message. The terms identifier contains a vertical bar; that original character was preserved and URL-encoded for the request, not silently corrected.

These are paid offers involving private browsing and authentication codes. Shoppers should be able to read the applicable data and purchase terms before deciding whether to use them. The checked listings have no linked developer presentation website to provide that missing context. The issue is inaccessible legal information, not Google Docs hosting by itself.

The AdBlock privacy label says Data Not Collected. The Authenticator label declares Contact Info linked to the user’s identity. With the linked policy unavailable, the investigation cannot establish the purpose, retention or treatment of authentication secrets from that policy. This does not prove the app steals codes or collects data contrary to its label.

Sources: E17, E18, E19, E20, E5, E8. Checks: 26 October 2026.

Ahmad Waheed and the Shafia Rana connection

The connection between the two investigated apps is direct: both appear in Apple developer account 6783655218, under Ahmad Waheed. The current US catalog contains eleven distinct app IDs across Mac, iPhone and iPad. A repeated appearance on multiple device categories is not another app.

AdBlock’s copyright identifies Shafia Rana. Current listings for Font book, Whiteboard, Screen Recorder and Christmas Countdown also carry that copyright while naming Ahmad Waheed as publisher. Font book and Christmas Countdown publish the same Shafia-named support email. This is a documented portfolio/contact association, stronger than a name-only search result.

Search-indexed Apple records still identify Shafia Rana as publisher for several of these exact app IDs. Current live pages identify Ahmad Waheed. The retained copyright and matching contact support an earlier publisher-name association; they do not establish whether there was an app transfer, account-name change, legal relationship or enforcement event. No verified date or explanation for that change was found.

The shared portfolio also reuses similar subscription copy about premium features, short projects and creators across tools with different purposes. This indicates reused marketing text within an already verified common account; it is not by itself proof of fraud.

Sources: E11, E5, E21, E22, E24, E25, E28. Checks: 26 October 2026.

A related policy works, but it is a different document

Font book’s description publishes two other Google Docs URLs. Both were readable without signing in, and their complete texts were reviewed. The policy and terms share the same support contact as the portfolio listings, strengthening the Shafia Rana association.

The working privacy policy is dated 2 May 2023. It describes usage data, IP addresses, device identifiers, analytics and sharing in generic terms. It defines the company as the respective application rather than identifying a legal entity or business address. The working terms are similarly generic and provide no country identification.

These document IDs differ from the shared, sign-in-gated policy used by the two subjects and from AdBlock’s broken description URLs. The working portfolio policy is therefore not substituted for the inaccessible policy or treated as proof of either subject app’s runtime data collection.

Sources: E21, E26, E27. Checks: 26 October 2026.

The reporter suspects Pakistan based on patterns in earlier reports

The reporter suspects that the country of operation is Pakistan, based on patterns they observed in earlier reports concerning developers in Pakistan. The country allegation is presented as the reporter’s interpretation of recurring patterns.

The checked German and Irish provider panels identify Ahmad Waheed as a non-trader and do not disclose a business city or country. The linked portfolio documents establish connections between the apps and the Shafia Rana name but do not identify a business location. The country-disclosure field used for statistics therefore remains Unknown.

Name-frequency searches were also reviewed: Forebears’ historical records place Waheed most frequently in Pakistan, while Rana appears in Pakistan and more frequently in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. These aggregate records describe name distributions; they do not locate the people operating these accounts.

Reporter’s pattern-based country suspicion: E40. Provider disclosures and linked documents: E6, E7, E9, E10, E21, E26, E27. Aggregate name-distribution context: E38, E39. Checked 26 October 2026.

Weekly offers have much higher estimated annual costs

AdBlock’s US weekly offer is $4.99, with an estimated annual cost of $259.48, compared with a $24.99 yearly plan: about 10.38 times as much. Germany and Ireland show €5.99 weekly, an estimated €311.48 annually, against €29.99 yearly.

Authenticator’s weekly offer is $3.99, with an estimated annual cost of $207.48, compared with $39.99 yearly: about 5.19 times as much. The euro weekly price is also €3.99, estimated €207.48 annually, compared with a €44.99 yearly offer.

These are continuous-renewal estimates at unchanged prices, not a charge independently observed on a customer’s account. Calendar-year billing can vary. The descriptions disclose automatic renewal, but the public listing does not establish that all plans have identical benefits or that a particular paywall hides the cheaper option. High pricing alone does not establish a scam.

Sources: E1, E2, E5, E7, E8, E10. Checks: 26 October 2026.

Storefront differences are not a proven rebranding history

The AdBlock release record begins on 28 September 2024 and currently lists version 1.0.10 dated 20 December 2025. The supplied Authenticator lookup gives a first-release date of 27 August 2026, while its visible version history includes version 1.0 dated 3 August 2026. Those source fields are recorded without assuming what caused the discrepancy.

The verified archive replays are from 26 October 2026, the same day as the supplied captures. Earlier-history index queries did not return usable dated branding evidence for the checked URLs. A generic launch followed by a brand-name switch was not established. The reporter’s separate allegation of an earlier Apple ban and return under another name is discussed above and remains independently unconfirmed.

Sources: E1, E2, E29, E30, E31. Checks: 26 October 2026.

The documented issues warrant App Store review

Apple’s accurate-metadata provisions (2.3), trademarked-name guidance (2.3.7), copycat rules (4.1) and intellectual-property requirements (5.2.1) are relevant to Authy in an independently published authenticator’s name and the YouTube-style presentation. Brand references that accurately describe compatibility are not automatically the same as impersonation; the combined presentation must be assessed.

Privacy rule 5.1.1(i) requires a privacy-policy link in App Store metadata and an easily accessible policy explaining data practices. The shared sign-in destination and AdBlock’s missing description documents are concrete obstacles to reading that information. These observations support a disclosure review; they do not establish credential theft, malware or a final legal infringement finding. No Apple or brand-owner enforcement decision was obtained.

Sources: E16, E14, E15, E17, E19, E20. Checks: 26 October 2026.

The records behind this report.

Two supplied analyses contain 21 original pages plus two complaint texts. All source pages and visual evidence were read. The complete PDF includes the written investigation, all 21 original analysis pages, both supplied complaint texts and three original publisher-page screenshots in a six-page evidence appendix. The full source analyses are preserved; raw evidence archives named inside them were not supplied, so those archives’ internal hashes were not independently verified. The HTML omits support-email text and personal street/phone details. No app installation, credentials, payment, complaint submission or developer contact was performed.