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Apple recently claimed that it stopped over $7 billion of potential fraudulent transactions between 2020 and 2023. The figures emerged from the company’s fourth annual fraud prevention analysis that it shared yesterday. In the report, Apple detailed how its App Store’s rules have protected users from fraudulent apps and several other security issues between the mentioned time frame.
Apple prevented fraudulent transactions worth $7 billion between 2020 and 2023
As per the report, the company managed to prevent over $1.8 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2023 alone. It is worth noting that this figure is lower than the $2 billion reported by the company for 2022. Apple further added how it managed to prevent over $7 billion in fraudulent transactions during the time frame.
During 2020 and 2023, Apple blocked over 14 million stolen credit cards and over 3.3 million accounts from making any transactions. The company added that it rejected over 1.7 million app submissions in 2023 as well. Apple said all such apps failed to meet its privacy, security, and content standards.
Apple also took steps towards banning several accounts to make the App Store a safe space for its users. It terminated more than 374 million developer and customer accounts and removed over 150 million ratings and reviews from the App Store. In 2023 alone, the tech giant shut down nearly 118,000 developer accounts. This number is less than the 428,000 terminations it reported for 2022.
Apple says its effort to prevent the creation of fraudulent accounts has led to a big drop in account terminations. Let’s not forget that Apple also rejected over 91,000 enrollment submissions from developers due to security concerns.
Apple’s app review team blocked several illegitimate apps, too
Besides talking about stopping more than $7 billion worth of fraudulent transactions, Apple said that the app review team blocked multiple apps that initially posed as harmless products but went on to become pirated movie streaming apps, illegal gambling apps, etc.
That’s not all, the review team also identified and removed some financial services apps intended to defraud users. A total of 40,000 apps were taken down from the App Store allegedly “involved in bait-and-switch activity.” Additionally, the team rejected nearly 38,000 and 375,000 apps for undocumented or hidden features and privacy violations, respectively.
Moving on, Apple also blocked at least 47,000 illegitimate apps available in unauthorized app stores. The company said its review team with over 500 staff reviewed over 6.9 million app entries in 2023. And, allowed 192,000 developers to publish their first app in the App Store.
With this report, Apple could be hinting at EU lawmakers on how its strict App Store policy has stopped over $7 billion in fraudulent transactions and safeguarded users from online frauds over the year. Not to forget, with the EU’s intervention, the company allowed the sideloading of apps in the region against its will. Apple has always argued against sideloading for years and said it exposes users to scams, frauds, and several other privacy issues.