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I don't think I've ever searched for something on the app store and not got a scam as the first result just tried it - my bank? I get crypto.com - tra

I don't think I've ever searched for something on the app store and not got a scam as the first result just tried it - my bank? I get crypto.com - train company app? knockoff app that charges extra fees - my broker? CFD gambling app - official government app for paying my tax? intuit product I dare to think how many people this lures in scammy ads plastered everywhere is what I'd expect from Google products not for the Apple equivalent that commands a significant price premium

echoangle 3y ago
Can you share some search terms you tried? I never had this problem, but I’m also not in the US so it might be different here
- pushcx 3y ago
  Pretty much every brand or app I search for finds a competitor first. Searching for "robinhood" turns up an unaffiliated cryptocurrency app and "macrofactor" turns up a competing diet app, etc. App store search has been broken for at least a few years.
  - concinds 3y ago
    Do you mean ads or organic results? Apple should remove App Store search ads altogether (I'm sure they won't). By definition they won't give you the app you searched for, because the keyword will be bought by a competitor or even a scam.
    - pushcx 3y ago
      If Apple is making money from showing incorrect search results, isn’t that worse?
    - jowea 3y ago
      What if you're searching for "bank" or "flashlight" or "map"?
  - Reason077 3y ago
    > "Pretty much every brand or app I search for finds a competitor first." You're going to hate Amazon.com.
    - rchaud 3y ago
      Amazon is known to be a flea market though. Apple is supposed to be the Nordstrom of this sector.
  - echoangle 3y ago
    Do you mean the ad at the top? For me, the first result is always an ad which is mostly not the right result, and the second entry (the first actual result) is the right app.
habeanf 3y ago
In hindsight, this is quite obvious. Coming from years of using Google Pixels I just got used to trusting the search results. I've never hit a fraudulent app when searching in the Play Store. I trusted apple that at least the top 5 results would be legit. EDIT: added the word 'top' at the end
RulerOf 3y ago
This has been a very noticeable problem to me for some time. I won't search the App Store anymore. I go to the web site for the app I want and get the App Store link that way. I wish the App Store listings would specify the domain of the entity they come from in plain text, backed by a validation method similar to what we do for TLS certs.
kylecazar 3y ago
Especially given they use enhanced security as an excuse so often
gumby 3y ago
I am still surprised that when I search for a specific app (as you did for your bank) I still see junk ads before the real app shows up. Apple should be better than that. They seem to have the same bad incentive Google search does. What is CFD gambling? When I read “CFD” I always think of computational fluid dynamics and so “CFD gambling” sounds pretty cool to me. Obviously I do know I’m just overfitting to a TLA and I’d like to know what it actually means.
- koolba 3y ago
  Probably “contract for difference”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference
- blibble 3y ago
  contract for difference in this case: extremely short term highly leveraged bets
  - quickslowdown 3y ago
    This guy's the least risk adverse trader on the Internet! (I know, probably not, but it's funnier this way)
- saywhanow 3y ago
  I regressively searched for the app advertised in the previous search. At around depth twelve, a search for “four” gave both an ad and top result of an app named “Four”. If you’re curious, Four’s description is “Shop Now, Pay Later.”
- kibwen 3y ago
  > Apple should be better than that. Everyone should be better than that, but as far as Apple specifically, they're really no better than any other hypermegacorp. Apple's a company, it doesn't give a damn about you, it only gives a damn about enriching its owners.
  - 3y ago
iscrewyou 3y ago
> I don't think I've ever searched for something on the app store and not got a scam as the first result It’s cool to crap on Apple and all these days but this is all categorically false. What you are referring to is the Ad on the top of the page. It’s clearly labeled as ad and has a light blue box around the whole ad. I tried all those things you mentioned and the first result after the clearly labeled ad is what I searched for.
- ghewgill 3y ago
  Then what are the ads for? How do they benefit users?
TacticalCoder 3y ago
TFA is talking about a literal scam, where his money vanished. > - my bank? I get crypto.com Although crypto.com is not a bank, they seem like a legit business and not a scam. Many people are using crypto.com: I know one person who has one such card and I asked a waiter if he had already seen cards like that (waiters gets to see many credit/debit cards a day) and he answered me that they weren't that uncommon. > - official government app for paying my tax? intuit product They may be using shady tactics but they are not a scam.
- mort96 3y ago
  crypto.com 1) is cryptocurrency bs and 2) buys ads on keywodrs which leads them to appear on searches for specific banks, smells like a scam to me
OJFord 3y ago
> my broker? CFD gambling app I don't think 'gambling app' is a fair description given it's a regulated security, any broker that truly offers CFD trading is (1) going to be legit; (2) going to be competing with the broker you were searching for for result space. Of course to serve its users any app store should massively prioritise the word/brand (incl. typos) you actually search for though.
- Animats 3y ago
  > any broker that truly offers CFD trading is (1) going to be legit; Er, no. "Contracts for Difference" are the new binary options.
- jsheard 3y ago
  Casino gambling is also regulated, there being some degree of oversight doesn't make it not gambling.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    Sure. This is a financial instrument used by industry professionals though, not just an 'app'. You can (and some people do) call buying shares 'gambling' too, at some point it just comes down to what our definitions are and it's not very interesting.
    - quickslowdown 3y ago
      There are professional gamblers (pro poker?). I think I understand the spirit of what you're trying to say, but CFDs are absolutely a gamble, like most investing. It just doesn't have the same stink of "casino gambling," it's a fresh cut, cologne wearing, suited up form of gambling.
      - OJFord 3y ago
        > absolutely a gamble, like most investing Yeah well like I said, definitions. If most investing is gambling then sure, I just don't find that useful. Anyway the initial comment I was responding to was 'looking for my broker but got CFDs'; my point was they got a different broker. It's still a bad search result, but it's not a weird scam, it's just a competitor. It's not the same as looking for my bank but got crypto exchange at all.
fakedang 3y ago
Special mention, the f***ton of Whatsapp clients on the iPad when Whatsapp didn't have any releases for the iPadOS up until last September.
Rodmine 3y ago
> scammy ads plastered everywhere is what I'd expect from Google products This won’t fit with the manufactured popular understanding, but at the current time, Google protects you from fraud and scam better than anyone. I have been unfortunate enough to be scammed recently from a bing search result (ad). (It was a new computer and I decided to use Edge and bing was the default search). Apple, Microsoft etc. are rookies in this game. Google just has the benefit of experience and hence is much safer now than anyone can ever become in the near future. Because of this, scammers are much more likely to target other platforms… which happen to be Apple, Bing, Facebook etc.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- a1o 3y ago
  This is true. Btw, the macOS app store is also full of products that you really shouldn't use and most of software you really should use have alternate ways that you buy them going through their website and get something so that you can install. Microsoft Office, JetBrains IDEs and Adobe products all will install and update without you having to go through the macOS Appstore.
  - pg_1234 3y ago
    Doesn't Apples current dispute with the EU hinge on the argument by Apple that keeping their App Store locked down protects customers from scams?
    - a1o 3y ago
      I don't remember, but the macOS apps distributed without the Appstore also require all the Apple dev dance of signing, notarization and paid developer account and all...
- mvolfik 3y ago
  > Google protects you from fraud and scam better than anyone I have to disagree. Czech Youtube is currently full of scam ads with photos (and sometimes even bad deepfakes) of Czech president and other public figures, supposedly endorsing some investment product that yields you like 50% profit. I keep reporting these, and I know some people who do too, but ~80% of those reports get handled as "we determined no violation of our rules".
cam_l 3y ago
Hilarious. I don't think i have never seen or gotten a scam app (not including games, which I don't use) as the top result on Google Play. In fact, I just used all your searches on Google play and got - my bank - the train company app - my broker - hmrc The next 4 or 5 in each case were also legit. Maybe this is really something to be aware of if switching to apple? Certainly would not have been something I would have been expecting from apple (though I am pretty careful about vetting apps).
- milch 3y ago
  I think the poster here meant an ad over the search results rather than the actual first result. The ads have a different highlight and a badge that says "ad" ... I just tried the same categories and all of the top results were the official app. The next few were mostly apps from the same developer as well. I don't know that I would call ads that are clearly labeled as ads a "scam" even if they are unwanted
legulere 3y ago
Do you mean the search result or the ad that pops in at the first space? For me all those have good results but all contain ads for more or less unrelated apps I would also expect products with premium pricing to not contain ads.
crossroadsguy 3y ago
On the contrary, as someone who has worked with both platforms as a developer, this is my personal opinion: - Around a lot of things software, including the Play Store, Google’s safety and security, for all its ads, tracking and shenanigans, are real, largely verifiable, discussed openly, and pretty fucking robust (not to mention, most of it are actually open). - Apple’s? Smoke and mirrors! Essentially some vague shit which often ludicrously boils down to Safest Shit Ever On an iPhone™ (and doesn’t go further than that) and never discussed or even offered a glimpse of.
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - sensanaty 3y ago
    iOS exploits are worth the same as Android ones.
    - EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
      An iPhone user is typically from a rich country, like US or Japan, an Android user is typically from India or China. Here's 10x wealth difference. Add to this the fact the iPhone users are dumber and more prone to expoits, so of course hackers would rather focus on App Store.
      - smoldesu 3y ago
        Be that as it may, many security firms actually value Android zero-days above iOS ones: https://zerodium.com/program.html https://zerodium.com/program.html
seanhunter 3y ago
I don't recognize this picture at all. Even if you aren't distinguishing between ads and search results I'm not seeing scams as adverts but there may be a difference between the UK and US app stores in this respect perhaps. For me on apple UK app store: my bank - Ad: another legit bank. First result: my bank Train company - Ad: a generic legit train booking app. First result: the train company My broker - Ad: another broker. First result: my broker Official government app for paying my tax - ad: a general tax app. First result: government app. It stands to reason that they won't show an ad for the thing you're searching when it's the first organic result so I don't find this surprising. [1] I have two and tried both. Results were the same with a different legit bank as the ad each time.
- joquarky 3y ago
  At what point do we recognize marketing as a sociological disease?
  - burnerthrow008 3y ago
    The point where we admit that HN is the patient. A longtime HN commenter just switched to iOS? Seriously?
thiht 3y ago
When I first got an iPhone a few years back, this is the thing that shocked me most. This is completely out of line with what I expect from Apple. I don’t have "scams" per se, but the first result when searching for a keyword is systematically an ad for a competitor: - Spotify -> Deezer - Uber -> Heetch - UberEats -> Deliveroo - Deliveroo -> Ubereats - My bank -> crypto.com I have no idea why Apple allows buying trademarks/full app names as an ad keyword. Perfect matches should always have the app first, not an ad. Is there something in the AppStore rules that prevent apps from buying the keyword ad for their own app?
- rchaud 3y ago
  > I have no idea why Apple allows buying trademarks/full app names as an ad keyword. Because unlike a regular search query, app store searches tend to be for app names, which are unique. Advertisers won't be interested unless bidding on brand names were allowed.

echoangle 3y ago

Can you share some search terms you tried? I never had this problem, but I’m also not in the US so it might be different here

pushcx 3y ago
Pretty much every brand or app I search for finds a competitor first. Searching for "robinhood" turns up an unaffiliated cryptocurrency app and "macrofactor" turns up a competing diet app, etc. App store search has been broken for at least a few years.
- concinds 3y ago
  Do you mean ads or organic results? Apple should remove App Store search ads altogether (I'm sure they won't). By definition they won't give you the app you searched for, because the keyword will be bought by a competitor or even a scam.
  - pushcx 3y ago
    If Apple is making money from showing incorrect search results, isn’t that worse?
  - jowea 3y ago
    What if you're searching for "bank" or "flashlight" or "map"?
- Reason077 3y ago
  > "Pretty much every brand or app I search for finds a competitor first." You're going to hate Amazon.com.
  - rchaud 3y ago
    Amazon is known to be a flea market though. Apple is supposed to be the Nordstrom of this sector.
- echoangle 3y ago
  Do you mean the ad at the top? For me, the first result is always an ad which is mostly not the right result, and the second entry (the first actual result) is the right app.

habeanf 3y ago

In hindsight, this is quite obvious. Coming from years of using Google Pixels I just got used to trusting the search results. I've never hit a fraudulent app when searching in the Play Store. I trusted apple that at least the top 5 results would be legit. EDIT: added the word 'top' at the end

RulerOf 3y ago

This has been a very noticeable problem to me for some time. I won't search the App Store anymore. I go to the web site for the app I want and get the App Store link that way. I wish the App Store listings would specify the domain of the entity they come from in plain text, backed by a validation method similar to what we do for TLS certs.

kylecazar 3y ago

Especially given they use enhanced security as an excuse so often

gumby 3y ago

I am still surprised that when I search for a specific app (as you did for your bank) I still see junk ads before the real app shows up. Apple should be better than that. They seem to have the same bad incentive Google search does. What is CFD gambling? When I read “CFD” I always think of computational fluid dynamics and so “CFD gambling” sounds pretty cool to me. Obviously I do know I’m just overfitting to a TLA and I’d like to know what it actually means.

koolba 3y ago
Probably “contract for difference”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference
blibble 3y ago
contract for difference in this case: extremely short term highly leveraged bets
- quickslowdown 3y ago
  This guy's the least risk adverse trader on the Internet! (I know, probably not, but it's funnier this way)
saywhanow 3y ago
I regressively searched for the app advertised in the previous search. At around depth twelve, a search for “four” gave both an ad and top result of an app named “Four”. If you’re curious, Four’s description is “Shop Now, Pay Later.”
kibwen 3y ago
> Apple should be better than that. Everyone should be better than that, but as far as Apple specifically, they're really no better than any other hypermegacorp. Apple's a company, it doesn't give a damn about you, it only gives a damn about enriching its owners.
- 3y ago

iscrewyou 3y ago

> I don't think I've ever searched for something on the app store and not got a scam as the first result It’s cool to crap on Apple and all these days but this is all categorically false. What you are referring to is the Ad on the top of the page. It’s clearly labeled as ad and has a light blue box around the whole ad. I tried all those things you mentioned and the first result after the clearly labeled ad is what I searched for.

ghewgill 3y ago
Then what are the ads for? How do they benefit users?

TacticalCoder 3y ago

TFA is talking about a literal scam, where his money vanished. > - my bank? I get crypto.com Although crypto.com is not a bank, they seem like a legit business and not a scam. Many people are using crypto.com: I know one person who has one such card and I asked a waiter if he had already seen cards like that (waiters gets to see many credit/debit cards a day) and he answered me that they weren't that uncommon. > - official government app for paying my tax? intuit product They may be using shady tactics but they are not a scam.

mort96 3y ago
crypto.com 1) is cryptocurrency bs and 2) buys ads on keywodrs which leads them to appear on searches for specific banks, smells like a scam to me

OJFord 3y ago

> my broker? CFD gambling app I don't think 'gambling app' is a fair description given it's a regulated security, any broker that truly offers CFD trading is (1) going to be legit; (2) going to be competing with the broker you were searching for for result space. Of course to serve its users any app store should massively prioritise the word/brand (incl. typos) you actually search for though.

Animats 3y ago
> any broker that truly offers CFD trading is (1) going to be legit; Er, no. "Contracts for Difference" are the new binary options.
jsheard 3y ago
Casino gambling is also regulated, there being some degree of oversight doesn't make it not gambling.
- OJFord 3y ago
  Sure. This is a financial instrument used by industry professionals though, not just an 'app'. You can (and some people do) call buying shares 'gambling' too, at some point it just comes down to what our definitions are and it's not very interesting.
  - quickslowdown 3y ago
    There are professional gamblers (pro poker?). I think I understand the spirit of what you're trying to say, but CFDs are absolutely a gamble, like most investing. It just doesn't have the same stink of "casino gambling," it's a fresh cut, cologne wearing, suited up form of gambling.
    - OJFord 3y ago
      > absolutely a gamble, like most investing Yeah well like I said, definitions. If most investing is gambling then sure, I just don't find that useful. Anyway the initial comment I was responding to was 'looking for my broker but got CFDs'; my point was they got a different broker. It's still a bad search result, but it's not a weird scam, it's just a competitor. It's not the same as looking for my bank but got crypto exchange at all.

fakedang 3y ago

Special mention, the f***ton of Whatsapp clients on the iPad when Whatsapp didn't have any releases for the iPadOS up until last September.

Rodmine 3y ago

> scammy ads plastered everywhere is what I'd expect from Google products This won’t fit with the manufactured popular understanding, but at the current time, Google protects you from fraud and scam better than anyone. I have been unfortunate enough to be scammed recently from a bing search result (ad). (It was a new computer and I decided to use Edge and bing was the default search). Apple, Microsoft etc. are rookies in this game. Google just has the benefit of experience and hence is much safer now than anyone can ever become in the near future. Because of this, scammers are much more likely to target other platforms… which happen to be Apple, Bing, Facebook etc.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
a1o 3y ago
This is true. Btw, the macOS app store is also full of products that you really shouldn't use and most of software you really should use have alternate ways that you buy them going through their website and get something so that you can install. Microsoft Office, JetBrains IDEs and Adobe products all will install and update without you having to go through the macOS Appstore.
- pg_1234 3y ago
  Doesn't Apples current dispute with the EU hinge on the argument by Apple that keeping their App Store locked down protects customers from scams?
  - a1o 3y ago
    I don't remember, but the macOS apps distributed without the Appstore also require all the Apple dev dance of signing, notarization and paid developer account and all...
mvolfik 3y ago
> Google protects you from fraud and scam better than anyone I have to disagree. Czech Youtube is currently full of scam ads with photos (and sometimes even bad deepfakes) of Czech president and other public figures, supposedly endorsing some investment product that yields you like 50% profit. I keep reporting these, and I know some people who do too, but ~80% of those reports get handled as "we determined no violation of our rules".

cam_l 3y ago

Hilarious. I don't think i have never seen or gotten a scam app (not including games, which I don't use) as the top result on Google Play. In fact, I just used all your searches on Google play and got - my bank - the train company app - my broker - hmrc The next 4 or 5 in each case were also legit. Maybe this is really something to be aware of if switching to apple? Certainly would not have been something I would have been expecting from apple (though I am pretty careful about vetting apps).

milch 3y ago
I think the poster here meant an ad over the search results rather than the actual first result. The ads have a different highlight and a badge that says "ad" ... I just tried the same categories and all of the top results were the official app. The next few were mostly apps from the same developer as well. I don't know that I would call ads that are clearly labeled as ads a "scam" even if they are unwanted

legulere 3y ago

Do you mean the search result or the ad that pops in at the first space? For me all those have good results but all contain ads for more or less unrelated apps I would also expect products with premium pricing to not contain ads.

crossroadsguy 3y ago

On the contrary, as someone who has worked with both platforms as a developer, this is my personal opinion: - Around a lot of things software, including the Play Store, Google’s safety and security, for all its ads, tracking and shenanigans, are real, largely verifiable, discussed openly, and pretty fucking robust (not to mention, most of it are actually open). - Apple’s? Smoke and mirrors! Essentially some vague shit which often ludicrously boils down to Safest Shit Ever On an iPhone™ (and doesn’t go further than that) and never discussed or even offered a glimpse of.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
[flagged]
- sensanaty 3y ago
  iOS exploits are worth the same as Android ones.
  - EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
    An iPhone user is typically from a rich country, like US or Japan, an Android user is typically from India or China. Here's 10x wealth difference. Add to this the fact the iPhone users are dumber and more prone to expoits, so of course hackers would rather focus on App Store.
    - smoldesu 3y ago
      Be that as it may, many security firms actually value Android zero-days above iOS ones: https://zerodium.com/program.html https://zerodium.com/program.html

seanhunter 3y ago

I don't recognize this picture at all. Even if you aren't distinguishing between ads and search results I'm not seeing scams as adverts but there may be a difference between the UK and US app stores in this respect perhaps. For me on apple UK app store: my bank - Ad: another legit bank. First result: my bank Train company - Ad: a generic legit train booking app. First result: the train company My broker - Ad: another broker. First result: my broker Official government app for paying my tax - ad: a general tax app. First result: government app. It stands to reason that they won't show an ad for the thing you're searching when it's the first organic result so I don't find this surprising. [1] I have two and tried both. Results were the same with a different legit bank as the ad each time.

joquarky 3y ago
At what point do we recognize marketing as a sociological disease?
- burnerthrow008 3y ago
  The point where we admit that HN is the patient. A longtime HN commenter just switched to iOS? Seriously?

thiht 3y ago

When I first got an iPhone a few years back, this is the thing that shocked me most. This is completely out of line with what I expect from Apple. I don’t have "scams" per se, but the first result when searching for a keyword is systematically an ad for a competitor: - Spotify -> Deezer - Uber -> Heetch - UberEats -> Deliveroo - Deliveroo -> Ubereats - My bank -> crypto.com I have no idea why Apple allows buying trademarks/full app names as an ad keyword. Perfect matches should always have the app first, not an ad. Is there something in the AppStore rules that prevent apps from buying the keyword ad for their own app?

rchaud 3y ago
> I have no idea why Apple allows buying trademarks/full app names as an ad keyword. Because unlike a regular search query, app store searches tend to be for app names, which are unique. Advertisers won't be interested unless bidding on brand names were allowed.