Apple App Store prevents over $9b in fraudulent transactions in last 5 years

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple said on Tuesday that App Store has protected users by preventing over 9 billion US dollars in fraudulent transactions in the last five years, including over 2 billion dollars in 2024 alone, according to its annual App Store fraud analysis.

The company has an average of more than 813 million visitors a week to its App Store.

In 2024, Apple terminated more than 146,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns and rejected an additional 139,000 developer enrollments, it said.

Apple also rejected over 711 million customer account creations and deactivated nearly 129 million customer accounts last year, blocking these risky and malicious accounts from carrying out nefarious activity.

Over the past month, Apple has also stopped nearly 4.6 million attempts to install or launch apps distributed illicitly outside the App Store or approved third-party marketplaces, it added.

Before any app makes its way onto the App Store, it is vetted by a member of Apple's App Review team.

App Review involves both human review and automated processes to detect and take action on apps that are suspected to be potentially harmful to users.

With over 7.7 million App Store submissions reviewed in 2024, more than 1.9 million were rejected for failing to meet Apple's standards for security, reliability, and user experience, including for privacy violations or fraud concerns, according to the company.

In 2024, App Review removed more than 37,000 apps for fraudulent activity.

In 2024, it also rejected over 320,000 submissions that copied other apps, and 400,000 app submissions for privacy violations.

Last year, Apple identified nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards and banned over 1.6 million accounts from transacting again.