Saturday, June 14, 2025

Apple saved App Retailer customers from over $7 billion in fraudulent prices during the last three years


Final week, Apple introduced that from 2020 by way of 2023 the corporate blocked greater than $7 billion in probably fraudulent transactions. Final yr, the tech large stopped greater than $1.8 billion in suspicious transactions from going by way of. Throughout the identical time interval, Apple additionally prevented greater than 14 million stolen bank cards and three.3 million accounts from conducting transactions with the App Retailer.

Apple not solely shot down makes an attempt to make use of fraud to pay for purchases within the App Retailer, it additionally stopped fraudulent apps from getting listed on the App Retailer. Final yr, over 1.7 million submissions for app listings have been rejected by Apple for failing to fulfill its requirements for privateness, safety, and content material. 248,000 requests for an App Retailer itemizing have been blocked by Apple as a result of the app was thought of to be spam, a copycat app, or was designed to mislead customers. 

Apple would not permit over 38,000 apps to get listed within the App Retailer as a result of that they had “hidden or undocumented options.” And greater than 375,000 apps have been rejected by Apple as a result of privateness violations. Probably the most harmful apps are those who current themselves to be innocent however as soon as put in they remodel into malicious apps. 

Apple says, “Dangerous actors make use of misleading techniques to hurt customers, together with the apply of disguising probably dangerous apps as innocuous ones. Over the previous yr, there have been quite a few cases the place App Evaluate recognized apps initially misrepresented as innocent merchandise — reminiscent of photograph editors or puzzle video games — that later remodeled submit evaluate into pirate film streaming platforms, unlawful playing apps, or fraudulent and predatory mortgage issuers.”

Apple additionally mentions that there are harmful monetary companies apps which can be developed with the only real objective of ripping off shoppers. These apps are additionally used to assist phishing campaigns by impersonating the respectable apps created by well-known companies. “By way of its ongoing work to evaluate each app submission and examine problematic apps on the App Retailer, App Evaluate, in 2023, eliminated or rejected 40,000 apps from builders who engaged in bait-and-switch exercise,” Apple wrote in its Newsroom piece.

App Evaluate will take motion towards apps reported as fraudulent or malicious by these utilizing Apple’s “Report a Drawback” function. Such apps are instantly faraway from the App Retailer and the app’s developer faces termination from the Apple Developer Program. Final yr, Apple says that App Evaluate prevented near 98,000 fraudulent apps from changing into obtainable to App Retailer customers.

Many guests to the App Retailer base their shopping for selections on an app’s rankings and critiques which makes them a useful gizmo for unhealthy actors in search of to get the unsuspecting public to put in a malicious app. In 2023, Apple processed over 1.1 billion rankings and critiques with almost 152 million fraudulent rankings and critiques faraway from the App Retailer. 

Apple’s purpose in telling you this isn’t simply to brag in regards to the methods it has in place to stop App Retailer fraud, but additionally to make you’re feeling secure and safe when putting in an app, or making an in-app buy through the App Retailer.

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