Apple Blocks Over 1.7 Million Apps: Fraudulent Transactions Worth $2 Billion Halted

In 2022, the App Store team at Apple successfully halted over $2 billion worth of transactions that were flagged as potentially fraudulent.

Additionally, they took action against nearly 1.7 million app submissions that violated privacy, security, and content policies, ensuring a safer environment for users.

As part of their continuous commitment to combat account fraud, Apple terminated 428,000 developer accounts due to suspicions of fraudulent activity.

They also deactivated a staggering 282 million customer accounts found to be involved in fraudulent practices.

Furthermore, the team prevented 105,000 instances of suspected fraudulent activities by blocking the creation of developer accounts.

As per Apple, its team is responsible for reviewing an average of over 100,000 app submissions per week.

In the previous year, the team undertook the review of more than 6.1 million app submissions.

Out of these, 1.7 million submissions were rejected due to concerns related to fraud and privacy.

In more than one case this year, App Review caught apps using malicious code with the potential to steal users’ credentials from third-party services.

Apple

Furthermore, numerous app submissions were flagged for being spam, copycats, or misleading in nature.

Some apps were found to contain undocumented features, while others attempted to gather users’ data without their consent.

Apple also takes action by removing unapproved apps associated with developer accounts that have been disabled due to fraud.

In addition to app review and removal, Apple’s efforts to combat fraud extended to financial transactions as well.

Last year, Apple succeeded in blocking fraudulent transactions amounting to a significant $2.09 billion.

Moreover, approximately 714,000 fraudulent accounts were banned, preventing them from engaging in further transactions.

Furthermore, as reported by BleepingComputer, Apple’s vigilance in protecting users extended to blocking around 3.9 million stolen credit cards from being utilized for fraudulent purchases on the App Store.

Apple also took action against fraudulent reviews and ratings on the App Store.

After meticulously processing more than 1 billion reviews and ratings, they identified and removed over 147 million fraudulent ones.

This demonstrates Apple’s commitment to maintaining the integrity and reliability of the App Store’s review system.