Apple App Store has terminated nearly 118,000 developer accounts, labelling them as fraud or finding them engaged in fraudulent activities. According to the latest press release, fraudulent transactions amounting to $1.8 billion were identified and blocked in 2023.
Apple’s ecosystem is widely popular for safeguarding users’ personal and financial information, and to make it even more promising to its billions of users worldwide, the company has dedicated teams to monitor and investigate fraudulent activities on its platforms daily.
The activeness of those teams and the effectiveness of their measures can be understood from the fact that a whopping $7 billion in fraudulent activity was blocked between 2020 and 2023. This has prevented millions of Apple users from losing a considerable amount of money to cybercriminals.
Over 14 million stolen credit cards were identified and blocked from transacting between 2020 and 2023.
For years, Apple has been constantly taking measures to identify and block fraudulent activities and accounts in a bid to secure the complete ecosystem and let billions of users transact with confidence. As a result, in 2023 alone, the enrollment of 91,000 developers was rejected. In addition, Apple also blocked over 153 million fraudulent customer account creations and deactivated almost 374 million accounts for fraud and abuse.
Apple’s App Review team diligently upholds the sanctity of the App Store through a meticulous blend of automated mechanisms and human reviews. Their vigilance is paramount in swiftly identifying and acting against apps that pose a threat to user safety or defraud them, thereby safeguarding the integrity and trustworthiness of the platform.
The team confidently rejected over 1.7 million app submissions in 2023 on the grounds of malicious behaviour, privacy violations or fraudulent activity.
The action, however, was not limited only to the new entrant in the ecosystem. The team kept a close eye on the behaviour and complaints against the approved apps that were already listed on the App Store. Many apps that initially misrepresent themselves as harmless but later start behaving as malicious actors are also thrown out of the ecosystem. App Review removed over 40,000 such apps from the App Store in 2023.
Apple also heavily rejected apps that might not be involved in fraudulent activities but failed to comply with the company’s policies against spam, copying other apps, and making misleading claims. In 2023, the company rejected over 248,000 such apps.
To safeguard users’ sensitive financial information, Apple relies on secured payment technologies like Apple Pay and StoreKit.
Apple Pay doesn’t store credit card numbers on both devices and servers. Instead, it prioritizes security by utilising device-specific numbers and unique transaction codes. The approach ensures that users’ card details remain confidential and developers never get access to it.
But Apple’s teams responsible for safeguarding users don’t totally rely on automatic detection by systems and tools. Cutting-edge technology, complemented by human oversight, bolsters security measures by identifying the unauthorised use of stolen cards.
These efforts underscore Apple’s commitment to user safety and privacy, especially amidst ongoing regulatory scrutiny in regions like Europe and the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit earlier this year.
