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Apple says its App Store has thwarted over US$2 billion in fraudulent transactions

By The Count - on 17 May 2023, 4:02pm

Apple says its App Store has thwarted over US$2 billion in fraudulent transactions

IMAGE: APPLE

Apple's App Store has successfully thwarted over US$2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in the year 2022, according to a recent announcement by the company. In addition to preventing financial losses, the App Store also rejected nearly 1.7 million app submissions for failing to meet its standards for privacy, security, and content.

Account fraud was a significant focus of Apple's antifraud efforts, with 428,000 developer accounts and 282 million customer accounts identified and eliminated for fraudulent and abusive activities. By implementing new protocols and methods, Apple successfully reduced the number of potentially fraudulent developer accounts from 802,000 in 2021 to 428,000 in 2022. Additionally, the company prevented the creation of bad actor accounts by rejecting nearly 105 million suspicious Apple Developer Programme enrolments.

Apple also prioritised the prevention of fraudulent customer accounts, disabling over 282 million accounts associated with fraudulent and abusive activities in 2022. Moreover, the company successfully blocked 198 million attempted fraudulent new accounts before they could even be created.

According to Apple, the App Review process, Apple's frontline defence mechanism, played a pivotal role in protecting users from hundreds of thousands of unsafe apps in 2022. Every app undergoes meticulous safety checks during the development stage, and further verifications are conducted to ensure compliance with Apple's quality and safety standards. In 2022 alone, the App Review team reviewed more than 6.1 million app submissions, assisting over 185,000 developers in publishing their first apps and proactively resolving issues through more than 20,000 phone calls.

Nearly 1.7 million app submissions were rejected from the App Store in the same year due to various reasons, including fraud and privacy concerns. App Review successfully detected apps containing malicious code capable of stealing users' credentials from third-party services and apps that disguised themselves as benign financial management platforms but could morph into different applications. Additionally, approximately 24,000 apps were blocked or removed from the App Store for bait-and-switch violations.

Fraudulent apps found to be spam, copycats, or misleading accounted for over 153,000 of the rejected app submissions in 2022, while nearly 29,000 submissions were rejected for containing hidden or undocumented features. Privacy violations were another significant reason for app rejections, with over 400,000 app submissions failing to meet privacy standards.

Apple also actively investigated apps reported through the "Report a Problem" tool, swiftly removing confirmed fraudulent or malicious apps. Unapproved apps linked to terminated developer accounts for fraud and abuse were automatically removed, preventing them from being published on the App Store. In 2022, App Review took action against nearly 84,000 potentially fraudulent apps, effectively blocking their distribution to users.

Furthermore, Apple detected and blocked more than 147 million fraudulent ratings and reviews on the App Store in 2022. Inauthentic ratings and reviews from fraudulent or bot accounts can mislead users into downloading untrustworthy apps, prompting Apple to take strict moderation measures.

In the realm of payment and credit card fraud, Apple's initiatives resulted in the blocking of a record US$2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2022. Notably, the company prevented the usage of nearly 3.9 million stolen credit cards for fraudulent purchases and banned 714,000 accounts from conducting further transactions. Apple's secure payment technologies like Apple Pay and StoreKit, utilised by nearly 943,000 apps on the App Store, have significantly contributed to protecting users' financial information.

Apple recognizes that its work to maintain a safe and trusted App Store environment is an ongoing endeavour. Through continuous innovation and the development of new approaches and tools, Apple aims to prevent fraud and ensure the security and well-being of both App Store users and developers.

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