The App Store stopped more than $2.2 billion in fraudulent transactions by 2025

May 20, 2026

UPDATE

The App Store stopped more than $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions by 2025

Using human review and artificial intelligence to combat malicious activity, Apple rejected more than 2 million problematic app submissions in 2025 and blocked more than 1.1 billion fraudulent accounts created.

The App Store was built on two core principles: to provide users with a safe and trusted place to discover apps, and to offer developers a vibrant marketplace to grow their businesses.

Fulfilling these principles requires vigilance and determination. As the digital landscape expands, malicious actors continue to evolve their methods, often using deceptive tactics to target consumers and legitimate businesses. To overcome these challenges, Apple is constantly improving its multi-layered defenses, using a combination of expert human review and advanced machine learning technologies to detect and stop malicious activity.

By 2025, Apple has prevented more than $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, adding to a total of more than $11.2 billion over the past six years. Apple has also taken a number of measures to prevent bad actors from distributing malicious software, rejecting more than 2 million problematic app submissions last year alone.

Apple’s protections not only prevent harm to users, but also allow developers to thrive in the global market. Today, the App Store is a global destination that welcomes more than 850 million visitors to 175 stores every week.

Account fraud

Over the years, bad actors have developed their methods to deceive users, using tactics such as implementing bot networks to create fake accounts, spamming users, manipulating charts, or generating fake reviews.

In 2025, Apple’s trust and security teams stopped several large-scale attempts to create fraudulent accounts. Last year, Apple’s systems also successfully rejected 1.1 billion fraudulent customer accounts created — blocking bad actors at the outset — and disabled another 40.4 million customer accounts due to fraud and abuse.

Apple is also taking decisive steps to prevent malicious developers from entering the ecosystem, helping to ensure that legitimate creators do not compete with fraudulent actors. In 2025, Apple canceled 193,000 developer accounts due to fraud concerns and rejected more than 138,000 developer registrations.

To further protect users from malicious software, Apple detected and blocked 28,000 illegitimate apps from pirated stores in 2025, which include malware, pornographic apps, gambling, and pirated versions of legitimate apps from the App Store. By limiting these stores and illegal distribution channels, Apple also protects developers from having their apps cloned, altered or weaponized to spread malware.

In the past month alone, Apple has also prevented 2.9 million attempts to install or launch apps distributed illegally outside the App Store or approved alternative app marketplaces.

App review

As powerful AI development tools drive an increase in app submissions, Apple’s App Review process has seamlessly adapted to handle the volume and help ensure that every new app and app update meets the App Store’s high standards for privacy, security and quality.

In 2025, the App Review team reviewed more than 9.1 million submitted apps, helping to welcome more than 306,000 new developers to the platform. In addition, the team rejected more than 2 million submitted applications—including more than 1.2 million new applications and nearly 800,000 application updates—for failing to follow application review guidelines.

Apple App Review has always combined human expertise with machine learning, and this system is constantly evolving. Today, a multi-layered approach helps reviewers analyze submissions at scale, identify complex malicious patterns, and flag potentially fraudulent applications faster and more accurately.

This combined investment in advanced systems does more than catch bad actors – it makes the entire curation process more efficient. By using artificial intelligence to quickly identify complex malicious patterns, analyze app similarities, and flag potentially problematic changes in app updates, Apple’s systems help human reviewers focus their expertise where it matters most. This not only improves the customer experience by ensuring a high-quality and curated storefront, but also helps legitimate developers get their great apps and updates to users faster.

As deceptive tactics increase in sophistication, App Review remains vigilant in catching problematic apps. This includes apps that were originally approved as standard games or tools, such as a puzzle or calculator app, that then modified their software after a review with the intent of financial fraud. In 2025, the team removed nearly 59,000 apps for engaging in such bait-and-switch maneuvers.

Apple also rejected more than 22,000 submissions that contained hidden or undocumented features; more than 371,000 posts that were copied by other applications, were found to be spam or otherwise misled users; and more than 443,000 requests for privacy violations.

Apple provides developers with a number of tools and features to help them build their apps, including TestFlight, a service that allows app creators to test their products and get feedback from real users. Apple reviews pre-release software before it’s made available to users on TestFlight to ensure the app maintains the company’s high safety and security standards. In 2025 alone, Apple blocked the distribution of more than 2.5 million posts on TestFlight due to fraud or security concerns.

Discovery Fraud

Ratings and reviews are an essential feature for discoverability, helping users make informed decisions in the App Store and allowing developers to reach new audiences.

To keep the App Store safe and trustworthy, Apple uses a combination of human review and advanced artificial intelligence to identify problematic reviews and exaggerated ratings. Apple’s trust and safety teams integrate artificial intelligence throughout the moderation process to detect spam, abusive content and inauthentic reviews at scale. In addition, AI-powered dashboards and rapid data analysis tools accelerate the detection of new fraud vectors, allowing Apple teams to respond quickly to fraudulent activity and protect the integrity of the platform.

In 2025, Apple will process over 1.3 billion ratings and reviews. Using proactive detection tools, Apple has identified and blocked nearly 195 million fraudulent ratings and reviews that never appeared. To further protect the integrity of app discovery, Apple has blocked nearly 7,800 fraudulent apps from appearing in App Store search results and another 11,500 apps from appearing in the App Store charts, ensuring that honest developers are properly represented for their innovation and hard work.

Payment and credit card fraud

Apple empowers developers to build secure businesses by providing access to world-class payment technology. When consumers make a purchase using Apple Pay or StoreKit, their payment information is protected by industry-leading encryption. Today, more than 680,000 apps use Apple’s secure payment technologies to securely sell goods and services.

Apple uses both human review and advanced technology to identify and stop the use of stolen financial information. Using 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.

Last year, Apple prevented more than $2.2 billion in fraudulent transactions, stopped more than 5.4 million stolen credit cards from being used for fraudulent purchases, and blocked nearly 2 million user accounts from further transactions.

User and family support

In addition to Apple’s robust system defenses, there are a number of tools and features designed to allow users and families to confidently manage their own App Store environment.

The Kids category in the App Store is a great way for families to easily find apps that are designed for kids. Apps in this category must meet a stricter set of app review guidelines, such as restrictions on age ratings and in-app ads. In 2025, Apple rejected more than 5,000 apps that appeared in the Kids category because they didn’t follow the App Store’s strict rules. In addition to this category, Apple provides many free tools for developers to help them create an age-appropriate experience within their app, including the Declared Age Range API and PermissionKit.

Apple also offers features like Screen Time that help parents manage their child’s device usage, including the ability to set app limits, shutdown schedules, and content and privacy restrictions. Parents can also use Apple’s Ask to Buy feature to approve every app download and in-app purchase on their child’s device. If users encounter problems downloading or purchasing any app, they can flag those concerns using Apple’s Report a Problem tool.

Apple will continue to invest in its long-term commitment to protecting the quality and security of the App Store to ensure it remains the premier place for users to explore and developers to innovate for years to come. For more information on how to stay safe in the App Store, visit support.apple.com/en-us/122712.

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