Potentially fraudulent transactions did not see the light of day in the App Store. Apple announced that more than $1.5 billion was prevented in 2020 as a result.
In a statement from the company, it was announced that it “has redoubled its efforts to address these threats,” moving “relentlessly forward to combat these risks.”
Apple prevented attempts to steal money, information, and time by keeping nearly one million potentially dangerous and vulnerable apps out of the App Store.
According to the company’s findings, more than 48,000 apps were rejected for containing hidden or undocumented functionality. For generating spam, being copies of other apps or misleading: 150 thousand. Meanwhile, 215 thousand apps were rejected for privacy violations.
The company helped more than 180,000 new developers launch their apps in 2020. However, there are always some who seek to harm users: this is where the App Review team comes in.
The company is in charge of preventing potentially fraudulent situations. “This is a key line of defense,” Apple defines in its statement.
“Some developers use the app as bait and radically change its operation after review to circumvent the rules and commit prohibited, and even illegal, actions,” explains the company. “When we detect such apps, we immediately reject or remove them from the App Store.”
Developers have 14 days to appeal the decision, before the final closure of their accounts.
More scams Apple is fighting against
Another of the scourges Apple is fighting against is that of fraudulent ratings and reviews. We recently saw how Amazon was a victim of this type of situation, with Chinese companies buying positive reviews for their products.
Apple uses a system with machine learning and Artificial Intelligence to moderate ratings and reviews for accuracy and reliability. The company says that, since 2020, it has processed more than 1 billion ratings and more than 100 million reviews.
“However,” a spokesperson tells, “approximately 250 million of them were deleted for not complying with moderation rules.”
They also fight against fraudulent accounts: in 2020, the company canceled 470 thousand developer accounts, for this reason, rejecting another 205 thousand in the same way.
In addition, it detected and blocked approximately 110 thousand illegitimate apps on pirate portals, which are engaged in distributing malicious software with designs similar to those of popular applications.
To learn more about the security measures implemented by Apple, you can read the full press release at the following link on its official website.
