Apple Says It Blocked $1.5 Billion in Fraudulent Transactions on App Store

<p><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-2728" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;jpq&period;a9a&period;mytemp&period;website&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;06&sol;Apple-WWDC22-fraud-prevention-infographic&lowbar;inline&period;jpg&period;large&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"653" height&equals;"658" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Apple says its trying to keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for people to discover and download apps&period; A key pillar in that effort is Apple’s ongoing work detecting and taking action against bad actors who seek to defraud developers and users&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bad actors continue to evolve their methods of online fraud&comma; often making their schemes harder to recognize&period; That is why Apple has continued to refine its processes&comma; create new ones&comma; and engineer solutions to take on these threats&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Last year&comma; Apple released an inaugural fraud prevention analysis&comma; which showed that in 2020 alone&comma; Apple’s combination of sophisticated technology and human expertise protected customers from more than &dollar;1&period;5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions&comma; preventing the attempted theft of their money&comma; information&comma; and time — and kept nearly a million problematic new apps out of their hands&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Apple is now releasing an annual update to that analysis&colon; In 2021&comma; Apple protected customers from nearly &dollar;1&period;5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions&comma; and stopped over 1&period;6 million risky and vulnerable apps and app updates from defrauding users&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Apple’s efforts to prevent and reduce fraud on the App Store require continuous monitoring and vigilance across multiple teams&period; From App Review to Discovery Fraud&comma; Apple’s ongoing commitment to protect users from fraudulent app activity demonstrates once again why independent&comma; respected security experts have said the App Store is the safest place to find and download apps&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"pagebody-header"><strong>App Review<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The App Review process is multilayered&comma; and combines computer automation with manual human review&period; App Review uses proprietary tools that leverage machine learning&comma; heuristics&comma; and data accumulated since the App Store first launched&comma; which helps to quickly extract large volumes of information about an app’s potential issues and violations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Human review is the distinguishing component of the App Review process&period; The App Review team reviews every app and every update to ensure they follow the App Store’s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;developer&period;apple&period;com&sol;app-store&sol;review&sol;guidelines&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"nofollow noopener" data-analytics-exit-link&equals;"">guidelines<&sol;a> related to privacy&comma; security&comma; and spam&period; This process serves as a critical line of defense to help protect users from bad actors&period;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>App Review’s goal is always to help get quality&comma; new apps on the App Store&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In 2021&comma; App Review helped over 107&comma;000 new developers get their apps onto the store&period; This process can be iterative&comma; since sometimes apps may be unfinished or contain bugs that impede functionality when they are first submitted for approval&comma; or they might need to make improvements in its moderation mechanisms for user-generated content&period; In 2021&comma; over 835&comma;000 problematic new apps&comma; and an additional 805&comma;000 app updates&comma; were rejected or removed for a range of reasons like those&period; As part of the App Review process&comma; any developer who feels they have been incorrectly flagged for fraud may file an appeal to the App Review Board&period;<&sol;p><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"pagebody-copy">A smaller group of these rejections were for flagrant violations that could harm users or deeply diminish their experience&period; In 2021 alone&comma; the App Review team rejected more than 34&comma;500 apps for containing hidden or undocumented features&comma; and upward of 157&comma;000 apps were rejected because they were found to be spam&comma; copycats&comma; or misleading to users&comma; such as manipulating them into making a purchase&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sometimes&comma; nefarious developers try to circumvent App Review by creating an app that appears one way&comma; only to alter its concept or functionality once it’s been approved&period; When Apple finds instances of this sort of fraud&comma; App Review rejects or removes such apps from the store immediately&comma; and the impacted developers receive a 14-day appeals process notice prior to termination&period; In 2021&comma; over 155&comma;000 apps were removed from the App Store for these kinds of violations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>App Review plays a big role in Apple’s efforts to protect user privacy&period; App submissions are reviewed to ensure user data is being handled appropriately&period; In 2021&comma; the App Review team rejected over 343&comma;000 apps for requesting more user data than necessary or mishandling data they already collected&period;<&sol;p><&sol;div>&NewLine;

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