Apple has said it has prevented more than $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions on the App Store in 2024. In its fifth annual App Store fraud analysis report, the tech giant also said it has stopped a total of $9 billion fraudulent transactions via the app marketplace over the last five years.
The report comes nearly a week after the return of Epic Games’ Fortnite on the App Store, marking the potential end of a protracted legal battle between the iPhone-maker and the video game company.
Epic Games had accused Apple of violating antitrust law by taking a 30 per cent cut of in-app payment transactions and introducing anti-steering restrictions that prohibited developers from telling users that they can pay for services outside the App Store ecosystem.
Apple executives were on the verge of facing criminal contempt proceedings last month, after a US federal court said it had fallen short of complying with a previous injunction order dictating that the company must allow developers to direct users to external payment options.
In this context, Apple has continued to position its App Store as the safer and more secure payment processing system to discourage developers from using third-party payment processors.
“In-app purchase on the App Store offers users a secure and trusted environment designed to protect privacy, prevent fraud, and make managing purchases simple. With built-in tools to view, modify, or cancel subscriptions; purchase history; and support for refunds, users stay in control every step of the way,” Apple said in the fraud analysis report.
The company further said it blocked nearly 4.6 million attempts to ‘sideload’ or install apps from outside the App Store or third-party marketplaces approved by Apple.
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1.9 million app submissions rejected
Apple said it has taken comprehensive steps to tackle App Store threats ranging from deceptive apps designed to steal personal data of users to fraudulent payment schemes.
In 2024, Apple blocked nearly two million ‘risky apps’ submitted to the App Store, which sees an average of 813 million visitors every week. More than 146,000 App Store developer accounts were terminated last year. Additionally, Apple said it blocked over 10,000 illegitimate apps that acted as storefronts to access pornography apps, gambling apps, malware-loaded apps, and pirated versions of legitimate App Store apps.
As part of its crackdown on fake reviews on the App Store, Apple said it removed more than 143 million fraudulent ratings and reviews. It also took down over 7,400 apps from App Store charts and prevented nearly 9,500 deceptive apps from appearing in App Store search results.
The company further said it deactivated 129 million customer accounts that were spamming or manipulating ratings and reviews on the App Store.
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Out of 7.7 million apps submitted and reviewed by Apple, over 1.9 million apps were rejected for failing to meet the company’s security standards and other criteria. Among the submitted apps that did not make it on the App Store, 37,000 were flagged for fraudulent activity, 17,000 for bait-and-switch maneuvers, and 400,000 for privacy violations.
App Store’s app review process involves vetting by a human reviewer as well as usage of automated tools capable of detecting and taking action against potentially harmful apps.
“App Review rejects any potentially malicious apps it identifies during review, and the team’s investigation into one fraudulent app often results in the takedown of several others linked to the same problematic developer,” the report read.