Apple blocked over $11 billion in App Store fraud in 6 years
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Apple blocked over $11 billion in App Store fraud in 6 years
By Sergiu Gatlan
May 21, 2026
11:11 AM
Apple revealed that it blocked over $11 billion in fraudulent App Store transactions over the last six years, more than $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent App Store transactions in 2025 alone.
In a Wednesday press release, the tech giant said it rejected over 2 million problematic app submissions last year and blocked more than 1.1 billion fraudulent account creations.
Apple also terminated 193,000 developer accounts due to fraud concerns, rejected more than 138,000 developer enrollments, and deactivated an additional 40.4 million customer accounts suspected of fraud and abuse.
Last year, it also stopped more than 5.4 million stolen credit cards from being used and banned nearly 2 million user accounts.
These figures represent a notable increase over previous years, with Apple blocking over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, identifying nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards, and blocking over 1.6 million accounts from making further transactions in 2024.
"Apple utilizes both human review and advanced technology to identify and stop the use of stolen financial information," the tech giant said.
"By leveraging machine learning, Apple teams build powerful models to accelerate fraud detection and quickly evaluate new deceptive tactics. These technologies also provide a comprehensive view of fraudulent activity across customer accounts, devices, and payment methods."
Apple App Store fraud statistics 2025
Apple's App Review team evaluated over 9.1 million app submissions in 2025, up from 7.7 million the prior year, and has rejected more than 443,000 for privacy violations, over 371,000 for being copycats or misleading apps, and more than 22,000 for containing hidden or undocumented features.
Nearly 59,000 apps were also removed from the App Store last year for bait-and-switch tactics, almost triple the 17,000 it removed throughout 2024.
On the discovery fraud front, the company processed more than 1.3 billion ratings and reviews in 2025, blocking nearly 195 million fraudulent app reviews and ratings.
Apple also prevented nearly 7,800 deceptive apps from appearing in search results and blocked 11,500 from App Store charts. Apple further detected and blocked 28,000 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts.
According to Apple, the App Store currently draws over 850 million weekly visitors across 175 storefronts worldwide. Apple advises customers who suspect suspicious activity in apps downloaded from the App Store to report it immediately at reportaproblem.apple.com.
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App Store
Apple
Cybercrime
Fraud
Sergiu Gatlan
Sergiu is a news reporter who has covered the latest cybersecurity and technology developments for over a decade. Email or Twitter DMs for tips.
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