Apple’s efforts to protect its App Store from fraud scaled significantly in 2024, with new figures showing the company intercepted over $2 billion in attempted fraudulent transactions. That figure contributes to a five-year total exceeding $9 billion, revealing how digital threats have intensified as mobile commerce expands.
The company’s internal systems flagged a surge in bad actors attempting to exploit both developers and customers. Nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards were detected and blocked from use on the platform. Over 1.6 million accounts associated with suspicious financial activity were permanently banned.
Account fraud remained a major concern. Apple terminated more than 146,000 developer accounts, up from 118,000 in the previous year. It also stopped 139,000 attempts by fraudulent developers to onboard onto the App Store. Many of these accounts, investigators found, tried to push deceptive or malicious software disguised as legitimate apps.
While fraudulent developers posed threats, everyday user accounts also became vectors for abuse. Some were used to manipulate reviews, tamper with search results, or interfere with app visibility. Apple halted over 711 million fake customer account creation attempts and banned 129 million accounts judged to be harmful or non-genuine.
The company removed more than 143 million fraudulent reviews out of over 1.2 billion processed, part of its ongoing push to maintain user trust and platform integrity. Thousands of deceptive apps were also removed from the App Store charts and search rankings for violating platform manipulation policies.
App submission numbers revealed the scale of the challenge. From 7.7 million submissions in 2024, Apple rejected 1.9 million for failing to meet platform requirements. Investigations into individual fraudulent submissions often led to the uncovering of wider developer networks trying to circumvent the review process.
Malicious actors continued to test boundaries with apps hiding unapproved or undocumented functionality. Apple removed about 43,000 such submissions last year. Meanwhile, another 17,000 apps faced removal for bait-and-switch tactics—appearing harmless during review but behaving differently after launch.
Apple’s data suggests that despite the sophistication of today’s digital threats, active surveillance systems, both automated and human-led, continue to play a crucial role in keeping the App Store environment secure and trustworthy.
Read next: Google Rejects Claims AI Search Is Draining the Web, Says Queries Are Rising
The company’s internal systems flagged a surge in bad actors attempting to exploit both developers and customers. Nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards were detected and blocked from use on the platform. Over 1.6 million accounts associated with suspicious financial activity were permanently banned.
Account fraud remained a major concern. Apple terminated more than 146,000 developer accounts, up from 118,000 in the previous year. It also stopped 139,000 attempts by fraudulent developers to onboard onto the App Store. Many of these accounts, investigators found, tried to push deceptive or malicious software disguised as legitimate apps.
While fraudulent developers posed threats, everyday user accounts also became vectors for abuse. Some were used to manipulate reviews, tamper with search results, or interfere with app visibility. Apple halted over 711 million fake customer account creation attempts and banned 129 million accounts judged to be harmful or non-genuine.
The company removed more than 143 million fraudulent reviews out of over 1.2 billion processed, part of its ongoing push to maintain user trust and platform integrity. Thousands of deceptive apps were also removed from the App Store charts and search rankings for violating platform manipulation policies.
App submission numbers revealed the scale of the challenge. From 7.7 million submissions in 2024, Apple rejected 1.9 million for failing to meet platform requirements. Investigations into individual fraudulent submissions often led to the uncovering of wider developer networks trying to circumvent the review process.
Malicious actors continued to test boundaries with apps hiding unapproved or undocumented functionality. Apple removed about 43,000 such submissions last year. Meanwhile, another 17,000 apps faced removal for bait-and-switch tactics—appearing harmless during review but behaving differently after launch.
Apple’s data suggests that despite the sophistication of today’s digital threats, active surveillance systems, both automated and human-led, continue to play a crucial role in keeping the App Store environment secure and trustworthy.
Read next: Google Rejects Claims AI Search Is Draining the Web, Says Queries Are Rising
