Apple Says the App Store Protected Customers from Over $1.5 Billion in Potential Fraud

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Apple on Tuesday announced details on how it keeps the App Store a safe place for its customers, highlighting how the digital marketplace has “stopped more than $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2020.”

The iPhone maker says since the App Store has launched, fraud has grown in scale and sophistication, and the company has matched threats with “relentless steps forward”.

“It takes significant resources behind the scenes to ensure these bad actors can’t exploit users’ most sensitive information, from location to payment details,” explained Apple in a press release.

“While it’s impossible to catch every act of fraud or ill intent before it happens, thanks to Apple’s industry-leading antifraud efforts, security experts agree the App Store is the safest place to find and download apps,” says the company.

Last year, Apple says its “combination of sophisticated technology and human expertise” saved customers from over $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, to go with preventing close to 1 million risky apps from being downloaded.

Apple says it also has blocked over 3.2 million instances of scammers trying to distribute apps through the company’s enterprise program. In 2020, Apple says it deactivated 244 million customer accounts due to fraud and abuse, while 424 million attempts to create an account were denied, based on patterns of potential fraud and abuse activity.

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“In 2020 alone, the fusion of sophisticated technology and human review prevented more than 3 million stolen cards from being used to purchase stolen goods and services, and banned nearly 1 million accounts from transacting again,” concluded Apple.

The positive App Store statistics today come as Apple and Epic Games are embroiled in a lawsuit, with the latter alleging the iPhone maker’s digital store is anti-competitive or not, in terms of how it shares revenue with developers.

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