Apple
says that it prevented a combined total of over $7 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions from 2020 to 2023, including more than $1.8 billion in 2023 alone. Sharing its fourth annual fraud prevention analysis, the Cupertino-based tech giant said that it blocked more than 14 million stolen credit cards and stopped over 3.3 million accounts from transacting again during the same period.
In 2023 alone, Apple revented more than 3.5 million stolen credit cards from being used to make fraudulent purchases and banned over 1.1 million accounts from making a buy.
Apple’s annual fraud analysis gives insight into how the
App Store
's rules protect users from fraudulent apps and other security issues.
The company says that in 2023 it rejected more than 1.7 million app submissions as they failed to meet the App Store’s standards for privacy, security, and content. In addition, Apple terminated nearly 374 million developer and customer accounts, and removed close to 152 million ratings and reviews over fraud concerns.
Apple closed about 118,000 developer accounts
In order to prevent the creation of fraudulent accounts in the first place, Apple terminated about 1,18,000 developer accounts in 2023. Number of developer accounts closed decreased from 4,28,000 in 2022. In addition, more than 91,000 developer enrollments were rejected due to fraud concerns, thus preventing submission of problematic apps to the App Store.
Apple says it is aware that harmful activity can also occur at the customer account level as well. In 2023, Apple blocked over 153 million fraudulent customer account creations and deactivated nearly 374 million accounts for fraud and abuse.
The tech giant also detected and blocked more than 47,000 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts from reaching users over the last 12 months.
More than 1.7 million app submissions rejected
Apple conducts a number of checks before any app makes its way onto the App Store. It leverages both automated processes and human review to detect and take action on apps with the potential to harm or defraud users. In 2023, Apple rejected more than 1.7 million app submissions for various reasons, including privacy violations and fraudulent activity.
Apple says that there have been instances where
App Review
initially identified a few apps as harmless products — such as photo editors or puzzle games. But later, these apps transformed into pirate movie streaming platforms, illegal gambling apps, or fraudulent and predatory loan issuers. Through its ongoing work to review every app submission and investigate problematic apps on the App Store, App Review, in 2023, removed or rejected 40,000 apps from developers who engaged in bait-and-switch activity.
In 2023, Apple rejected more than 248,000 app submissions because they violated Apple’s policies against spam, blatantly copying other apps, or otherwise misleading users.
152 million fraudulent ratings and reviews removed from the App Store
In 2023, Apple processed more than 1.1 billion ratings and reviews. The company also removed nearly 152 million fraudulent ratings and reviews from the App Store.
English (US) ·