Apple confirms the scale of App Store fraud

Apple says millions of fraudulent attempts are made against the App Store and its users each year. The company prevented $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2021, it said, in line with similar levels of fraud in 2020.

How people attempt to commit App Store fraud

The company explains how fraudsters attempt to commit fraud via the store.

These attempts span the gamut from relatively unsophisticated attempts to make purchases using stolen or fraudulent credit cards to more complex scams consisting of apps that otherwise work fine but quietly gather data or carry malware to trick or defraud users.

Attempts to smuggle malware into apps to perform on-device fraud are intensifying in 2022. It is worth noting that there has been an increase of over 40% in malware  attempts against Android to perform on-device fraud so far this year, which shows that Apple’s concern is justified.

Apple has rejected tens of thousands of apps, including apps with hidden code and misleading, copycat, and privacy abusing apps. Millions of attempts to create fraudulent customer or developer accounts are made each year, the company said, while 3.3 million stolen credit cards have seen attempted use.

The scale of review fraud

Review fraud — in which competitors file illegitimate ratings and reviews to suppress sales of competing apps or to encourage users to download untrustworthy apps — also gets a mention.

Apple says over a billion ratings and reviews were made across 2021, and Apple had to detect and block over 94 million reviews and 170 million ratings for “failing to meet moderation standards.” Apple also ditched 610,000 reviews after publication following complaints and subsequent evaluation.

That data suggests the scale of review fraud is kaspersky total security 2018 key relatively high, as it hints that a very large percentage of the billion ratings and reviews made each year are at fault.

App Store developers have complained about this practice for years, and the data Apple has released justifies that concern. Having said that, this also suggests the risks of review fraud would be far, far higher if the App Store were left unmoderated.