According to data released by Apple, the company prevented more than $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2025 alone.
Apple's systems rejected 1.1 billion fraudulent customer account creations in 2025 and deactivated a further 40.4 million existing accounts for fraud and abuse.
Apple's App Review team evaluated over 9.1 million app submissions in 2025.
Beyond reviews, Apple blocked nearly 7,800 apps from appearing in search results and an additional 11,500 from appearing on App Store charts — actions targeting apps that were artificially inflating their visibility rankings.
The $2.2 billion in blocked fraudulent transactions represents the output of machine learning models built to detect deceptive payment patterns across accounts, devices, and payment methods.
Apple's annual App Store transparency figures offer a glimpse of the scale of digital fraud targeting one of the world's largest app marketplaces and the significant resources being deployed to counter it.
According to data released by Apple, the company prevented more than $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2025 alone. Across the past six years, that figure rises to over $11.2 billion. The numbers show an ongoing effort to manage fraud, abuse, and deceptive behaviour across a platform that sees over 850 million visitors each week across 175 storefronts globally.
One of the more striking data is the sheer volume of fraudulent account creation attempts. Apple's systems rejected 1.1 billion fraudulent customer account creations in 2025 and deactivated a further 40.4 million existing accounts for fraud and abuse. These accounts are typically used to generate fake reviews, manipulate app charts, run spam operations, or facilitate financial fraud.
On the developer side, Apple terminated 193,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns and rejected more than 138,000 developer enrolment attempts, which is intended to prevent malicious actors from entering the ecosystem before they can cause harm.
Apple's App Review team evaluated over 9.1 million app submissions in 2025. Of those, more than 2 million were rejected, including 1.2 million new apps and nearly 800,000 updates, for failing to meet the company's guidelines around privacy, security, and quality.
The reasons for rejection varied. Over 443,000 submissions were turned away for privacy violations. More than 371,000 were flagged for copying other apps, being classified as spam, or misleading users. Another 22,000-plus contained hidden or undocumented features.
A growing category of concern involves what Apple describes as bait-and-switch apps, that is, applications that pass review as a standard game or utility, then modify their functionality afterward to engage in financial fraud. In 2025, nearly 59,000 apps were removed for this behaviour.
Ratings and reviews influence which apps users discover and download, making them a target for manipulation. Apple processed over 1.3 billion ratings and reviews last year. Of those, close to 195 million were identified and blocked as fraudulent before ever reaching users.
Beyond reviews, Apple blocked nearly 7,800 apps from appearing in search results and an additional 11,500 from appearing on App Store charts — actions targeting apps that were artificially inflating their visibility rankings.
Payment fraud
More than 680,000 apps currently use Apple's payment infrastructure. In 2025, Apple stopped over 5.4 million stolen credit cards from being used to make purchases on the platform and banned nearly 2 million user accounts from transacting again. The $2.2 billion in blocked fraudulent transactions represents the output of machine learning models built to detect deceptive payment patterns across accounts, devices, and payment methods.
Apple also reported action against unofficial app distribution channels. In 2025, the company detected and blocked 28,000 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts. In just the final month of the reported period, 2.9 million attempts to install or launch apps distributed outside the App Store or approved alternative marketplaces were prevented.
Even Apple's beta testing platform, TestFlight, was subject to abuse. The company blocked more than 2.5 million prerelease submissions from distribution due to fraud or security concerns.
In the Kids category, more than 5,000 apps were rejected in 2025 for failing to meet the required standards around age ratings and in-app advertising.
The data Apple publishes annually doesn't capture every dimension of App Store fraud, but it does illustrate the scale of automated and coordinated abuse that platforms of this size routinely face. The figures also shows a significant operational investment: human review teams, machine learning systems, account verification processes, and developer vetting all running in parallel.
For developers and users alike, the underlying dynamic is the same — fraud in the app ecosystem isn't a niche problem, and managing it is now a core part of running a major digital marketplace.
