In its continued effort to safeguard the integrity of the App Store, Apple says it blocked an unprecedented number of fraudulent activities in 2024, including over 711 million fake customer account creation attempts and the deactivation of nearly 129 million existing accounts deemed to be risky or malicious.
The revelations were detailed in Apple’s latest App Store Fraud Prevention Report, which highlights the company’s escalating efforts to keep its platform secure for users and developers alike. The report underscores the growing scale of attempts to manipulate Apple’s digital ecosystem ranging from spam and fake reviews to app piracy and malware distribution.
“These accounts were responsible for spamming or manipulating App Store reviews, rankings, and search results,” Apple said in the report. “By rejecting and disabling them, we helped maintain the trust and reliability of the App Store.”
The company also disclosed that it had terminated over 146,000 developer accounts in 2024 over concerns related to fraud, while an additional 139,000 attempted developer enrollments were rejected preventing bad actors from distributing harmful or deceptive apps before they ever reached the public.
Apple’s vigilance extended beyond the App Store to unregulated, third-party platforms known as pirate storefronts, where cloned or altered apps often infused with malware or designed for illicit purposes are distributed to unsuspecting users. In 2024 alone, Apple says it blocked more than 10,000 illegitimate apps from these channels, which often host gambling content, pornography, or pirated versions of legitimate apps.
By cracking down on these rogue platforms, Apple says it is not only protecting consumers but also defending developers from intellectual property theft and malicious repackaging of their software.
The report further revealed that 4.6 million attempts to install or launch apps from unauthorized sources were thwarted in just the past month, as part of the company’s broader crackdown on sideloading and app distribution outside sanctioned marketplaces.
Apple estimates that these combined measures prevented over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions on the App Store in 2024. That figure brings the total value of blocked fraud over the past five years to more than $9 billion.
While the tech giant has often faced criticism for its tight control over iOS app distribution, these numbers are likely to reinforce Apple’s position that its walled garden approach is essential for maintaining a safe digital environment.
As regulatory and legal pressures mount worldwide to open up Apple’s ecosystem, particularly in the U.S. and EU, the report may serve as both a defense of Apple’s policies and a warning about what could be at stake in a more open, less regulated app environment.
