In 2020 alone, Apple’s combination of sophisticated technology and human expertise protected customers from more than $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, preventing the attempted theft of their money, information, and time — and kept nearly a million risky and vulnerable new apps out of their hands.

The App Review team rejected more than 48,000 apps for containing hidden or undocumented features, and more than 150,000 apps were rejected because they were found to be spam, copycats, or misleading to users in ways such as manipulating them into making a purchase.

About 95,000 apps were removed from the App Store for fraudulent violations, predominantly for these kinds of bait-and-switch maneuvers.

The article goes on talking about how Apple is trying to protect privacy and fight against fraudulent Ratings and Reviews, Payment and Credit Card fraud, and a highlight in Account fraud.

Apple deactivated 244 million customer accounts due to fraudulent and abusive activity. In addition, 424 million attempted account creations were rejected because they displayed patterns consistent with fraudulent and abusive activity.

All these actions will end up reaching the 1,5 billion dollar prevention, mentioned by Apple. These are very big numbers, but not surprising. I can only imagine how much bigger that number would be if Apple allowed third-party payment systems or installation of apps outside the App Store. Most likely it would go unnoticed.

This article was published at a very convenient timing, while the Epic Games v. Apple trial happens.