App storefronts like Apple’s App Store and Google Play are marketed as being more “secure” platforms to download apps from. This is because the companies claim to have systems in place to prevent malware and also a review process meant to weed out the unsavory apps, but it seems that it might not necessarily be the perfect system.According to a report from the Washington Post, it seems that out of the top 1,000 apps in Apple’s App Store, about 2% of those apps were found to be scam apps. This means that out of those 1,000 apps, about 20 or so might have been scams. To be fair, 20 out of a 1,000 is actually pretty good as far as we’re concerned, but it shows that there is still work that needs to be done.
After all, making it into the top 1,000 apps means that these apps were probably downloaded many times, which could have affected thousands of users in the process. The report claims that these apps alone might have resulted in people getting defrauded out of $48 million.
Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz has since responded to the report in a statement which reads, “We hold developers to high standards to keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for customers to download software, and we will always take action against apps that pose a harm to users. Apple leads the industry with practices that put the safety of our customers first, and we’ll continue learning, evolving our practices and investing the necessary resources to make sure customers are presented with the very best experience.”