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Comment by KomoD | Hacker News Reader

> does a scam app become the #1 organic search result (not promoted) in the app store

It's possible that it's just because it was literally called "Bitcoin Wallet", an exact match for your search, or boosted by fake reviews, or it was actually an ad that you didn't notice. Though it shouldn't have gotten past review at all

But I don't really understand why you'd blindly trust some random app?

Also, would be interesting to take a look at the app, sadly know nothing about ios apps or how to get the IPA, only android.

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You're right, I shouldn't trust a random app. Also, it's pretty much my first serious foray into Apple land. I trusted Apple's search results. There are multiple apps, far more mature and backed by serious developers, that would also match the phrase "Bitcoin Wallet".

The question is why is the scam app the #1 organic search result? For a new app with such scammy reviews and questionable metadata I would expect it to be #30 in the list. For context, the app store reports the scam app as #85 in all finance apps.

> The question is why is the scam app the #1 organic search result?

The real answer is that this has been happening for years. You can pay companies to pump up your app to the top of App Store search results or "app categories" lists, and they'll have farms of iPhones/Androids downloading apps to pump up their rank, and giving them 5 star reviews.

There have also been repeated problems with copycat apps that impersonate real indie apps (and sometimes end up earning more than the real app), which should have been a warning sign of the problems of App Review. Google "app store copycat" and you'll see.

> But I don't really understand why you'd blindly trust some random app?

Perhaps because Apple claims their apps go through a review process, and one would hope this would have failed that process? That's what Apple claims the value proposition of their 30% cut and closed platform are.

This short conversation perfectly summarized the reality behind the Apple <> EU spat.

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