How Apple’s App Store saved consumers from $2b fraud in 2022

Apple’s pre-WWDC cavalcade of news releases continues, with the company helpfully telling us that having a curated, controlled, competent App Store managed to prevent consumers being ripped off to the tune of $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2022.

It also rejected nearly 1.7 million app submissions for failing to meet Apple’s standards for privacy, security, and content. Apple blocked a record $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2022, banning 714,000 fraudulent accounts from transacting again.

What if you want a walled garden?

This news appears as Apple continues its battle with regulators who seem to want to force it to open up its stores to the detriment of some, and the benefit of other, consumers.

The company also shared a few facts, such as that the App Store attracts over 650 million average weekly visitors worldwide

That over 36 million registered Apple developers sell apps via the store, and that it supports over 195 local payment methods and 44 currencies.

Apple shared additional details concerning the frauds it has prevented.

These include terminating over 428,000 developer accounts for potentially fraudulent activity and getting rid of 282 million customer accounts for fraud and abuse. Almost 105,000 Apple Developer Program enrolments were rejected for suspected fraudulent activity.

In 2021, Apple terminated over 802,000 developer accounts for potentially fraudulent activity. The company attributed the decline in banned devs to new “methods and protocols that allow the App Store to prevent the creation of potentially fraudulent accounts.”

Benefitting who?

But it’s users who stand to suffer if the moat is breached.

In 2022, Apple protected users from nearly 57,000 untrustworthy apps from illegitimate storefronts, the company said, warning such spaces 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.

What about App Review?

The App Store’s app review process helped prevent consumers installing hundreds of thousands of unsafe apps in 2022, the company said.

On average, the App Store teams review over 100,000 app submissions a week, with nearly 90 percent of them receiving a review within 24 hours.

In 2022, nearly 1.7 million app submissions were rejected from the App Store for various reasons, including concerns related to fraud and privacy. In more than one case this year, App Review caught apps using malicious code with the potential to steal users’ credentials from third-party services.

In other instances, the App Review team identified several apps that disguised themselves as innocuous financial management platforms but could morph into another app. Nearly 24,000 apps were blocked or removed from the App Store for bait-and-switch violations such as these in 2022.

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.

Additional data included:

• Over 153,000 rejected app submissions were found to be spam, copycats, or misleading.
• 29,000 submissions were rejected for containing hidden or undocumented features.
• Over 400,000 app submissions were rejected for privacy violations.
• 84,000 potentially fraudulent apps were prevented from reaching users on the App Store.
• Apple also detected and blocked over 147 million fraudulent ratings and reviews.
• Over 1 billion ratings and reviews were processed in 2022.

Payment and Credit Card Fraud

Apple says it blocked nearly 3.9 million stolen credit cards from being used to make fraudulent purchases, and banned 714,000 accounts from transacting again. In total, Apple blocked $2.09 billion in fraudulent transactions on the App Store in 2022.

What Apple said

“Apple’s work to keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for users and developers is never done. As bad actors evolve their dishonest tactics and methods of deception, Apple supplements its antifraud initiatives with feedback gleaned from a myriad of channels — from news stories to social media to AppleCare calls — and will continue to develop new approaches and tools designed to prevent fraud from harming App Store users and developers.”

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