Apple blocks – Apple says it blocked more than $11 billion in fraudulent App Store transactions over the last six years, including more than $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2025. In the same period, the company rejected millions of problematic app subm
Apple has been quietly logging the scale of the problem it says it fights every day—numbers that now stretch across years, and into the billions.
Over the last six years, the company says it blocked more than $11 billion in fraudulent App Store transactions. The crackdown intensified in 2025 alone, when Apple says it blocked more than $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent App Store transactions.
The latest report also details a broad sweep aimed at developers, customers, and payments. Apple said that last year it rejected over 2 million problematic app submissions and blocked more than 1.1 billion fraudulent account creations. It 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.
On the payments side, Apple said last year it stopped more than 5.4 million stolen credit cards from being used. It banned nearly 2 million user accounts.
Apple frames the effort as both human and technical. In a Wednesday press release. the company said “Apple utilizes both human review and advanced technology to identify and stop the use of stolen financial information.” It added that its teams use machine learning to speed up fraud detection and adapt as scammers change tactics—while also building “a comprehensive view of fraudulent activity across customer accounts. devices. and payment methods.”.
The company also pointed to what it calls an increase over previous years. Apple said that in 2025 it blocked over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, identified nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards, and blocked over 1.6 million accounts from making further transactions in 2024.
The fight is not only against account takeovers and payment abuse. Apple says its App Review team evaluated over 9.1 million app submissions in 2025, up from 7.7 million the prior year. Of those. it 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.
Bait-and-switch tactics were also a target. Apple said nearly 59,000 apps were removed from the App Store in 2025 for bait-and-switch tactics—almost triple the 17,000 it removed throughout 2024.
Apple’s report includes activity tied to user trust as well. It said it processed more than 1.3 billion ratings and reviews in 2025, blocking nearly 195 million fraudulent app reviews and ratings. It also prevented nearly 7,800 deceptive apps from appearing in search results and blocked 11,500 from App Store charts. In addition, Apple said it detected and blocked 28,000 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts.
The scale is global. Apple said the App Store currently draws over 850 million weekly visitors across 175 storefronts worldwide.
For customers who spot suspicious activity, Apple said it advises reporting it immediately at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Apple App Store fraud App Store transactions account creations developer accounts stolen credit cards machine learning fraud detection App Review privacy violations bait-and-switch apps
11 BILLION?? so where’s the fix for the rest of us lol
Seems like Apple is doing “fraud” math again. If they blocked that much, why do I still get random app charges sometimes? Also the article says 5.4 million stolen cards got stopped… what about the rest
My cousin said her card got hit because it was “fraudulent” but she never even downloaded anything, so like… is it the account or the device? Apple “terminated 193. 000 developer accounts” which sounds huge but idk if that’s actually stopping scams or just moving them
So Apple banned 40.4 million customer accounts and still people say the App Store is full of scams. Makes me think the “human review” part is just them deleting stuff they don’t like. Also $2.2 billion in 2025… that’s like basically nothing compared to the store revenue right? Idk I’m not buying it, but I guess machine learning helps