Apple Improves Scam App Reporting Process

Tech giant Apple has reportedly made it easier for users to report scam apps across the iOS App Store.

Engadget writes that following reports that a large percentage of the most popular apps in Apple’s iOS App Store were scams, Apple has begun allowing users to report individuals apps. The latest update to Apple’s App Store in iOS 15 lets users “report a scam or fraud” for apps on the platform, once the user has that app installed on their device.

Kosta Eleftheriou, an iOS developer who previously spoke to Breitbart News about the issue of scam apps across the App Store after one of his own apps was cloned by scammers, commented on the issue on Twitter:

In a major reversal, Apple quietly added back the “Report a Problem” @AppStore button in iOS 15: pic.twitter.com/UopiPDEV7e

— Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) October 3, 2021

The new feature reportedly allows for even further detail to be added compared to the previously “Report a Problem” feature that users had access to. Users can now indicate that an app is a scam or fraud whereas before they could only select “Report suspicious activity,” “Report a quality issue,” “Request a refund” or “Find my content”

Users previously were forced to make an in-app purchase before being allowed to report a scam or fraud, but this no longer appears to be the case. The “Report a Problem” option has now returned to app listings for the first time in ears, previously the option was located at the bottom of the Apps or Games tab and would send users to a separate website.

Some of the scam apps recently discovered on the App Store included VPNs that tricked customers into paying for unnecessary software, QR readers and dating apps, and apps fraudulently claiming to be from major brands. A report from the Washington Post earlier this year claimed that scam apps may have defrauded users out of as much as $48 million.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com