Apple stopped $2 billion worth fraud transactions on App Store in 2022

Apple managed to block nearly 3.9 million stolen credit cards from being used to make fraudulent purchases, and banned 714,000 accounts from transacting again

Since its start in 2008, Apple App Store has grown into massive virtual market housing the most innovative apps that not only offer services to Apple device owners, but also play a good platform for developers to lead a successful business.

Now, App Store is a thriving ecosystem with 650 million average weekly visitors worldwide. It also supports 195 local payment methods and 44 currency options and is helping 36 million plus registered Apple developers.

However, App Store also attracts bad actors, who plan to release malicious apps to steal customer's personal and financial details. But, thanks to Apple's robust security screening, it has managed to prevent several fraudulent transactions and blocked thousands of bad apps too.

In the latest report, Apple has revealed that it has stopped more than $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions. It has managed to block nearly 3.9 million stolen credit cards from being used to make fraudulent purchases and banned 714,000 accounts from transacting again.

Also, Apple rejected nearly 1.7 million app submissions. Among them, close to 400,000 applications were turned away for violating user privacy policy. Add to that 150,000 plus app submissions were rejected for being copycats, spam, and promising misleading services.

And, around 29,000 applications declined to enter App Store for having hidden and undocumented features.

Furthermore, Apple said it terminated 428,000 plus developers' accounts and more than 282 million fraud customer accounts. And, also stopped 105 million developers from creating accounts on App Store, for failing to meet Apple's high-security standards.

Sometimes, threat actors lure potential victims to compromised third-party websites or App Stores, to install their apps (via jailbreaking) on Apple devices. Here too, Apple has managed to protect users from nearly 57,000 untrustworthy apps from illegitimate storefronts.

In the last month alone, Apple reportedly blocked close to 3.9 million attempts to install or launch apps distributed illicitly through the Developer Enterprise Program.
The company also prevented around 198 million fake customer accounts from being created.

Besides device owners, Apple also protected developers from bad actors. There are instances of people writing fake reviews to dent app developers' image and eventually leading to a loss in business.

Apple App Store (screengrab)

So, Apple processed more than one billion reviews and ratings. It blocked and removed more than 147 million ratings and reviews for failing to meet its moderation standards.

It should be noted that Apple prevented $1.5 billion worth of fraudulent transactions in 2021. It also stopped over 1.6 million risky and vulnerable apps and app updates from defrauding users.

Must read | Apple App Store prevented $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2021

Comparing the 2021 Apple report with 2022, it shows despite the robust screening process, bad actors are undeterred and trying hard to infiltrate the App Store ecosystem. Thankfully, Apple is doing a job of curbing cyber threats on its platform.

This comes amid reports of anti-competitive monitoring agencies of the European Union and select global countries including India's CCI (Competition Commission of India), planning to formulate plans to make it mandatory for platform owners such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, among others to allow more avenues for customers to install apps even form third-party storefronts and even support multiple payment channels.

They have the responsibility of protecting device users from cyber threats and it would be good, to offer more authority and a little leeway to platform owners to have their own security system. Compared to others, Apple is doing a better job of stopping bad actors and curbing fraudulent activities.

Apple App Store 2022 security report in crisp pointers:
-- More than $2 billion worth of potentially fraudulent transactions prevented on App Store
-- More than 428,000 developer accounts were terminated for potentially fraudulent activity
-- 105 million plus fraudulent developer account creations blocked
-- 282 million fraudulent customer accounts deactivated
-- Nearly 400,000 app submissions were rejected for privacy violations
-- Over 153,000 app submissions were rejected for spam, copycats, or misleading users
-- Nearly 29,000 app submissions were rejected for containing hidden or undocumented features
-- Over 1 billion ratings and reviews were processed and Apple removed and blocked more than 147 million ratings and reviews on App Store
-- Around 3.9 million stolen credit cards were blocked from being used on App Store
-- 714,000 accounts banned from transacting again

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