In its fourth annual fraud prevention report, Apple disclosed that it had blocked $1.8 billion in fraudulent transactions during 2023 alone, contributing to a total of $7 billion thwarted from 2020 to 2023. The tech giant has also prevented the use of more than 14 million stolen credit cards and banned over 3.3 million accounts to protect its ecosystem.
The scrutiny extended to Apple’s App Store, where over 1.7 million app submissions were rejected in 2023 for failing to meet stringent privacy, security, and content standards. There was a significant decrease in the number of terminated developer accounts, from 428,000 during 2022 to 118,000 in 2023, thanks to new strategies aimed at preventing the creation of fraudulent accounts.
Furthermore, in 2023, Apple blocked 153 million fraudulent customer account creations and terminated nearly 374 million developer and customer accounts overall due to fraud and abuse. Over the last 12 months, the company identified and eliminated 47,000 illegitimate apps from pirate storefronts and, over the last month, halted nearly 3.8 million attempts to install or launch pirated apps through the Developer Enterprise Program.
In 2023, Apple’s app review team examined 6.9 million app submissions and assisted 192,000 developers in launching their first apps on the App Store. The company has noticed a variety of deceptive apps that initially present as harmless but later transform into platforms for pirated movie streaming or illegal gambling.
Apple also removed financial service apps that were part of sophisticated social engineering schemes designed to defraud users. In 2023, a total of 40,000 apps were removed for bait-and-switch tactics, while 38,000 were rejected for having undocumented features. Additionally, 375,000 app submissions were rejected due to privacy concerns.
The report highlights the challenges posed by the recent EU regulations that permit apps to be installed from sources outside the App Store, bypassing some review processes. While these apps undergo a safety notarization process, Apple warns that downloading apps from these alternate marketplaces increases the risk of exposure to scams, fraud, and privacy issues.
