App Store stopped more than $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2022

May 16, 2023

UPDATE

App Store stopped more than $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2022

The App Store launched in 2008 with the mission of accomplishing two important objectives: to establish a reliable and secure platform for users to safely discover and download apps, and to provide developers with an exciting opportunity to showcase their ideas and grow their business.

Over the years, Apple has introduced various measures to support an ecosystem that benefits both users and developers. As a result, the App Store has become a vibrant and innovative platform that attracts over 650 million average weekly visitors worldwide, while providing more than 36 million registered Apple developers with a global distribution platform that supports more than 195 local payment methods and 44 currencies.

Today, Apple announced that in 2022, the App Store prevented over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, and rejected nearly 1.7 million app submissions for failing to meet the App Store’s high standards for privacy, security, and content.

Account Fraud

Apple rooted out 428,000 developer accounts and 282 million customer accounts for fraud and abuse last year.

Over the years, Apple has improved its systems to continuously monitor and detect account fraud quickly. In 2021, Apple terminated over 802,000 developer accounts for potentially fraudulent activity. In 2022, that number declined to 428,000 thanks in part to new methods and protocols that allow the App Store to prevent the creation of potentially fraudulent accounts. Additionally, nearly 105 million Apple Developer Program enrollments were rejected for suspected fraudulent activities, preventing these bad actors from submitting apps to the App Store.

In 2022, Apple protected users from nearly 57,000 untrustworthy apps from illegitimate storefronts, which do not have the same built-in privacy and security protections as the App Store. These unauthorized marketplaces distribute harmful software that can imitate popular apps or alter them without the consent of their developers. 

In the last 30 days alone, Apple blocked close to 3.9 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 also takes action against fraudulent customer accounts, and in 2022, disabled over 282 million customer accounts associated with fraudulent and abusive activity. And 198 million attempted fraudulent new accounts were blocked before they could even be created.

App Review

The App Store’s front line of defense protected users from hundreds of thousands of unsafe apps in 2022.

Apple performs a number of safety checks on every app before it makes its way onto the App Store. During the development stage, Xcode systematically inspects apps to certify they are using authorized technologies and to make sure the app meets minimum requirements for the App Store. After a developer uploads their app to App Store Connect, additional checks are run to verify it does not reference private APIs and is free of known malware. Once in review, each submission is carefully looked at by a member of the App Review team to ensure it meets Apple’s standards of quality and safety.

App Review has evolved its processes over time, and expanded its operations around the world to support developers and help get their apps onto the App Store quickly. On average, the team reviews over 100,000 app submissions a week, with nearly 90 percent of them receiving a review within 24 hours. Having reviewed more than 6.1 million app submissions in 2022, App Review helped more than 185,000 developers publish their very first app on the App Store, and made over 20,000 phone calls to developers to help them diagnose and resolve issues that led to an app submission rejection. 

In 2022, nearly 1.7 million app submissions were rejected from the App Store…