Purchase from random account showing up in Mac App Store?

Question

There's an app in my Mac App Store update list called "Mahjong Deluxe Free". I have never downloaded this app, let alone play mahjong (is that normal?).

Upon trying to clear it from the list by updating it, I am presented with the following:

The Apple ID entered is not mine, and I have never heard of it. No one else in my house uses my laptop, and I don't know anybody that still uses Hotmail.

I figured I would try clearing it by finding the app and downloading it with my own Apple ID, but the following:

I click OK, and it presents me with a final error, saying:

We could not complete your request.

There was an error in the App Store. Please try again later. (4)

Any ideas on what to do?

Answer 1

This is caused by a Mac AppStore Receipt residing somewhere on your system that was issued for different account. Spotlight is generally of no use in finding these, since it can't go deep enough to find them within the places they are. Usually the offending receipt can be located with a simple command, that may have to be adjusted according to your file system structure.

Open Terminal and try:

cd /

then

find . -type f -name "receipt" -exec grep -s -R -n -i "com.ensenasoft" {} \;

• Press Control - C to cancel/stop

if located you will should see something such as:

Binary file Applications/Mahjong Deluxe Free.app/Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt matches

If it failed to locate anything you will need to adjust the path, for example to search a different volume:

cd /Volumes/<Name of Volume>

then try the command again.