APPLE REPORTS BLOCKING OVER $1.5BLN IN POTENTIAL APP STORE FRAUD IN 2020

Wed 12 May 2021:

A combination of technology and human oversight detected and blocked more than $1.5 billion in sketchy and likely fraudulent transactions on Apple’s App Store in 2020, Apple said in a release.

“Apple’s combination of sophisticated technology and human expertise protected customers from more than $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, preventing the attempted theft of their money, information, and time – and kept nearly a million risky and vulnerable new apps out of their hands,” the release said on Tuesday.

A review team found and rejected nearly 1 million problematic new apps and an additional 1 million app updates in 2020, while assisting more than 180,000 new developers in launching new apps, the release said.

The effort resulted in the rejection of more than 48,000 apps for containing hidden or undocumented features, and more than 150,000 apps because they were found to be spam, copycats, or misleading to users in ways such as manipulating them into making a purchase, the release said.

Another 95,000 apps were removed from the App Store for so called bait-and-switch maneuvers, in which a developer substitutes a nefarious program for a just-approved app, the release noted.

Apple also said it terminated 470,000 developer accounts in 2020 and rejected an additional 205,000 developer enrollments over fraud concerns, preventing “bad actors” from ever submitting an app for approval.

In policing the platform for credit card fraud, Apple said it blocked attempts to purchase stolen goods and services with more than 3 million stolen cards and permanently banned nearly 1 million accounts.

While it’s impossible to catch every act of fraud or ill intent before it happens, Apple claimed its anti-fraud efforts make the App Store the safest place in the cyber universe to buy new programs for phones and computers.

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