Apple published the latest numbers for its annual App Store fraud analysis and said it prevented over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions in the last five years. Threats from bad actors prying on App Store users can range from deceptive apps that steal personal information to fraudulent payment schemes.
The iPhone maker prevented over $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2024 alone. That becomes more important when payment and credit card fraud are at large. Apple said it identified nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards and banned over 1.6 million accounts from transacting again.
In account fraud cases, Apple terminated over 146,000 developer accounts and rejected 139,000 accounts from enrolling on the App Store. The count has increased since 2023, when Apple terminated over 118,000 developer accounts and blocked more than 91,000 fraudulent developer accounts from being created.
Developer accounts are not the only ones used to target innocent users; regular customer accounts are also used for activities such as spamming, manipulating ratings and reviews, or messing with charts and search results.
The company prevented over 711 million customer account creations last year and blocked about 129 million accounts that it considered malicious. It processed over 1.2 billion ratings and reviews, removing more than 143 million fraudulent entries from the App Store, and also kicked out thousands of apps from App Store charts and search results.
Apple often touts the robustness of its App Store review system, which comprises automated processes and human reviewers who help detect and take action against malicious apps before they are published on the App Store.
Last year, the App Store had over 7.7 million app submissions, out of which 1.9 million were rejected after failing to meet the company's standards and guidelines. "App Review rejects any potentially malicious apps it identifies during review, and the team’s investigation into one fraudulent app often results in the takedown of several others linked to the same problematic developer," Apple said.
There are bad apps that try to sneak into the App Store with hidden or undocumented features. About 43,000 such app submissions were removed last year. Imposter apps can disguise themselves as seemingly innocuous apps, and Apple removed 17,000 such apps for "bait-and-switch maneuvers."
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