Apple Thwarts $1.8 Billion in Fraudulent Transactions on App Store in 2023

In 2023, Apple thwarted transactions amounting to $1.8 billion that were identified as deceitful within its App Store. On a Tuesday announcement, the tech behemoth from Cupertino shared its proactive stance against deceitful transactions spanning from 2020 to 2023. Apple emphasized how it's been on the frontline, battling the upsurge of digital deceit and ensuring its users remain shielded from scam and phishing threats. Throughout this timeframe, it successfully averted deceitful transactions in the App Store, amounting to a total of $7 billion (equivalent to approximately Rs. 58,440 crores), blocked over 14 million compromised credit cards, and prevented more than 3.3 million compromised accounts from making future transactions.

Apple’s initiatives were detailed in a publication within its newsroom, emphasizing its ongoing commitment to combating the ever-growing and complex nature of digital threats. This commitment includes a daily regiment of monitoring and investigating deceitful activities on the App Store, employing advanced technologies and mechanisms to eliminate malevolent entities, thus fortifying the App Store ecosystem. Within 2023 alone, Apple managed to safeguard against frauds valued at $1.8 billion (approximately Rs. 15,030 crores). It also refused entry to over 1.7 million app submissions that failed to align with its stringent requirements for privacy, security, and content. In addition, roughly 374 million developers and customer accounts were closed, and close to 152 million ratings and reviews were expunged due to fraud concerns.

Apple has taken considerable measures to mitigate risks at the customer account level, addressing issues like bot-created accounts designed to spam or manipulate ratings and reviews within the App Store. It successfully prevented the creation of over 153 problematic accounts and deactivated an additional 374 million. The process Apple employs for app vetting is rigorous, with a dedicated review team of 500 employees globally assessing every app before its App Store debut. This team evaluates around 132,500 apps weekly, amounting to nearly 6.9 million apps reviewed in the past year alone. The team employs both automated tools and hands-on reviews to meticulously detect and remove applications that might cause harm or involve fraudulent activities.