Apple released new data on anti-fraud measures related to its iOS App Store operation on Tuesday morning, refuting a claim that it stopped more than $7 billion in “potentially fraudulent transactions” in the four years between 2020 and 2023.
More than $1.8 billion of that total was stopped in 2023, according to Apple, which is lower than the $2 billion in potential fraudulent transactions that Apple said it prevented in 2022. It also said it blocked more than 14 million stolen credit cards. cards and more than 3.3 million accounts from transactions again between 2020 and 2023.
As with any self-reported corporate metric, the goal is to shape a narrative: In Apple’s case, it’s a longstanding claim that its mobile ecosystem sets “the standard for security, reliability and user experience,” as it puts it her blog post.
It’s worth noting that there are counter-narratives, such as the developer lawsuit that Apple settled in the fall of 2022 that raised allegations of unfair app rejections, fraud, and fraud.
The timing of Apple’s blog post coincides — coincidentally or not — with the start of Google’s developer confab, I/O. This is interesting because, in recent months, Mountain View has been running a pilot new automated anti-fraud measure for its own app store, Google Play, suggesting that the competition to spread mobile security credit is increasing thanks to artificial intelligence.
Apple’s other pressure point for ecosystem integrity comes from regulators. In the European Union, the iPhone maker has been forced, since February, to allow third-party app stores and sideloading of apps under the bloc’s Digital Marketing Act (DMA). It must also allow developers to use third-party payment technology (rather than their own) if they choose. Apple claims that the forced opening of DMA weakens the security of the iOS ecosystem.
Apple’s “fourth annual fraud prevention analysis” released today offers a retrospective look at where its App Store ecosystem has been to stop fraud and other problematic behavior before EU regulators get involved.
It also feels like a marketing push for developers who, at least in the EU, have an increasing range of choices about how to distribute their apps, rather than being forced to submit to Apple’s App Store to reach iOS users.
App Store integrity in context
Citing additional metrics for 2023, Apple said it rejected more than 1.7 million app submissions for not meeting its “rigorous” standards for privacy, security and content. It also said its efforts to stop and reduce fraud in the App Store led to the termination of nearly 374 million developer and customer accounts and the removal of “nearly” 152 million ratings and reviews over fraud concerns.
Also in 2023, Apple said it closed nearly 118,000 developer accounts — which its blog post notes is a marked decrease from 428,000 terminations the previous year (2022). It credits this reduction to “continuous improvements” in preventing potentially fraudulent accounts from being created in the first place, without specifying what changes it has made.
In further action last year, Apple said it rejected more than 91,000 developer registrations for “fraud concerns” – preventing those accounts from submitting what it considered “problematic apps” to the App Store.
Apple says its app review team has over 500 employees tasked with evaluating each app submission. “On average, the team reviews approximately 132,500 apps per week and in 2023 reviewed nearly 6.9 million app submissions while helping more than 192,000 developers publish their first app on the App Store,” he wrote.
Apple said its App Review workflow includes automated processes and human review to detect and block fraud and other harm. In 2023, more than 1.7 million app submissions were rejected by Apple for “various reasons, including privacy violations and fraudulent activity.”
“Bad actors use deceptive tactics to harm users, including the practice of disguising potentially dangerous apps as harmless,” the company wrote. “Over the past year, there have been many cases where App Review identified apps that were initially masquerading as harmless products – such as photo editors or puzzle games – that later turned the review into pirated movie streaming platforms, illegal gaming apps or scams and aggressive loan originators,” he wrote.
“In some extreme cases, the team also identified and removed financial services apps that engaged in complex and malicious social engineering efforts designed to deceive users, including apps impersonating well-known services to facilitate phishing campaigns and providing fraudulent financial and investment services Apple added. noting that App Store reviewers “removed or rejected 40,000 apps from developers who engaged in bait-and-switch activity” during the year.
