Apple says it stopped more than $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions on its App Store in 2024, as part of its ongoing efforts to crack down on scams and bad apps.
The company also claims it prevented nearly 2 million risky apps from ever reaching users last year. Over the past five years, Apple says it has blocked more than $9 billion US in fraud.
The App Store sees more than 800 million visits each week. Apple has long positioned itself as a safe and trusted marketplace. But with fraud attempts getting more sophisticated, Apple says it has expanded its detection systems, combining human reviewers with automated tools to screen millions of app submissions.
In 2024, Apple removed over 146,000 developer accounts due to fraud concerns and blocked another 139,000 developers from registering. It also rejected over 711 million customer account creations and deactivated nearly 129 million existing accounts suspected of shady behaviour, like manipulating reviews or spamming.
The company is also taking action beyond its own platform. Last year, Apple says it blocked over 10,000 apps found on pirate storefronts that were either malware, adult content, gambling-related, or unauthorized clones of legitimate apps. Apple also claims it stopped 4.6 million attempts to install apps from outside the App Store or approved third-party marketplaces.
When it comes to app submissions, Apple reviewed more than 7.7 million last year. Of those, over 1.9 million were rejected for not meeting standards on security, privacy, or user experience. That included around 400,000 submissions that violated user privacy, over 320,000 that were spam or copied other apps, and more than 43,000 that hid features not disclosed to Apple.
The company also rejected over 17,000 apps for bait-and-switch behaviour, where the app changes its function after approval, often to deceive users. Apple says it removed more than 37,000 apps for confirmed fraudulent activity in 2024 alone.
Fake reviews and App Store ranking manipulation were another focus. Apple says it processed over 1.2 billion ratings and reviews last year, removing more than 143 million of them for being fraudulent. In addition, over 7,400 apps were pulled from charts and 9,500 were scrubbed from search results for misleading users.
Apple also worked to stop scams involving payments. It says it prevented more than $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2024 and blocked the use of nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards. More than 1.6 million accounts were banned from making further transactions.
The company highlights tools like Apple Pay and StoreKit as key to helping developers offer secure in-app purchases. These systems are now used by more than 420,000 apps and include protections like end-to-end encryption and Apple ID authentication for every transaction.
Now, the App Store isn’t perfect because some bad apps somehow get through. For example, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney slammed Apple for allowing fake Fortnite apps in the App Store, ahead of the game’s return (here’s how to download it in Canada). It’s clear Apple wants to reiterate to everyone that the App Store is the place to be for safe apps and paying through the company’s payments system is the way to go (since it also charges a 30% fee from developers).
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