Apple on Tuesday shared its fourth annual fraud prevention information, offering insight into how the App Store’s rules protect users from fraudulent apps and other security issues. Apple says it has stopped $7 billion in fraudulent transactions in the last 4 years.
From 2020 through 2023, Apple prevented a combined total of over $7 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, including more than $1.8 billion in 2023 alone. In the same period, Apple blocked over 14 million stolen credit cards and more than 3.3 million accounts from transacting again.
Apple in 2023 rejected more than 1.7 million app submissions for failing to meet the App Store’s stringent 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 detected and blocked more than 47,000 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts from reaching users over the last 12 months. It also stopped nearly 3.8 million attempts to install or launch apps distributed illicitly through the Developer Enterprise Program, which allows large organizations to deploy internal apps for use by employees.
Apple’s App Review team evaluates every app submission. On average, the team reviews approximately 132,500 apps a week, reviewing nearly 6.9 million app submissions for the year. More than 192,000 developers published their first app onto the App Store in the past year.
in 2023, Apple’s App Review team removed or rejected 40,000 apps from developers who engaged in bait-and-switch activity. More than 248,000 app submissions were rejected from the App Store because they violated Apple’s policies against spam, blatantly copying other apps or otherwise misleading users. In addition, over 38,000 app submissions were rejected for containing hidden or undocumented features. Meanwhile, in the last year alone, over 375,000 app submissions were rejected for privacy violations.
For additional information about how Apple’s App Store protects against fraud, read the Apple press release here.
