While there’s no denying the fact that Apple’s App Store policy is pretty strict, there are loopholes. By exploiting these loopholes and bypassing the rules, scammers never fail to publish fraudulent practices and extort money from users. So far, you can’t help but drop these shady apps and wait for Apple to remove them from the App Store. But that has now changed for the better, thanks to the introduction of a new ‘Report a Problem’ button in the App Store in iOS 15. Lets you report scam apps and scams directly from the Apple App Store on your iPhone and iPad. Let me show you how to red flag fraudulent apps on your iOS device.
How to Report Fraud Apps in the App Store on iPhone and iPad (2021)
Before we move on to the step-by-step process, let’s find out what separates the new ‘Report a Problem’ button from the old reporting feature. We will also discuss the availability of this feature and how you can enable it on your iPhone right now. Having said that, let’s jump right in.
What’s the New ‘Report a Problem’ Button in the App Store?
It’s worth noting that earlier the “Report a Problem” button was embedded in the Games/Applications tab in the App Store. When you tap the button, the App Store takes you to a website where you can choose from four options –
- request a refund
- Report suspicious activity
- Find My Content
- Report a quality problem
Obviously, these options were there to calm users down and do tricks, as they didn’t offer a clear way to report a scam or bad practice. Worse still, the ‘Report suspicious activity’ option would direct users to Apple Support, which was pretty annoying to say the least.
Now the Apple App Store lets you directly report an issue with any free app with in-app purchases. Remarkably, you Have separate options to report not only scams but also offensive, illegal and abusive content. From a user’s perspective, it’s a much better practice. Now I’m wondering why it took Apple so long to make such a nifty change?
Is there still a warning? Unfortunately yes. As of now, the ‘Report a problem’ button is only available in the United States. This means that if you live in another part of the world, you can’t do much against fraudulent practices. And considering how much the word “Security” is touted in Apple’s ad campaigns, that’s a shame. But don’t worry, there is a workaround that will let you test this functionality even if you live in countries outside of the US.
Report Fraud and Abusive Content on the App Store
1. To get started app store On your iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 device. Next, go to the app you want to report and navigate to the info section. Next, tap on “Report the problem” choice.
2. Then it will redirect you to Apple’s website (idmsa.apple.com). Sign in using your Apple ID and password to continue. If you’ve somehow locked or disabled your Apple ID, review our guide to regain access to your Apple ID.
3. After signing in to your account, tap . Drop down menu ‘What can we help you with?’ Option to report the app from your iPhone.
4. As you can see below, the drop-down menu will offer you multiple options, including:
- request a refund
- Report a quality problem
- find my content
- Report a scam or fraud
- Report offensive, illegal or abusive content
Now choose your preferred option according to your needs and Next. For the purpose of this guide, I will choose the fourth option, which allows you to report a scam or fraud.
5. Finally, you must describe the problem and send report. After submitting the report, Apple will confirm that it will review the app and use your feedback to help improve the service. Note that the Cupertino giant will not send you a response based on your report. This means that you cannot do more than wait for the desired action.
How to Get App Store’s New ‘Report a Problem’ Option Outside the US
While there is no confirmation yet that this newly added feature will be made available outside of the US, you can currently access it via an old hack. As you can imagine, it requires you to create a US Apple ID or change your App Store country/region to US. I will suggest you go with the latter as it is a simpler workaround.
To change App Store country in iOS 15, go to: Settings -> your profile icon -> Media & Purchases -> View Account -> Country/Territory. After that, tap on Change Country or Region and enter a US address along with a phone number.
After changing your country, app store and go to the info section of a free app that also offers in-app purchases. Next, check ‘Report the problem’ choice. If it doesn’t appear immediately, restart your iPhone.
Reasons Behind Apple’s Failure to Stop Fraud Apps on the App Store
Without getting into the weeds, I’d like to point out that Apple employs only 500 human app reviewers compared to the 20,000 content moderators at Google. Facebook has 15,000 content moderators, while Twitter hires 2,200 reviewers to follow the content.
Given how large the App Store is, Apple needs to have a larger human app review team to prevent fraud on a large scale. With so much emphasis on improving security and privacy, the App Store deserves better protection against scams. It’s inexplicable why the Cupertino giant has been so passive on this front.
Report Scams and Fraud Apps on iPhone and iPad
This is how you can directly report fraudulent and abusive apps in the Apple App Store on iPhone. While time will tell how effective this feature will be, I find it more user friendly compared to the previous app. It will also be interesting to see if Apple takes any serious action against the reports. By the way, how do you rate this new app reporting feature? Do you find it more useful? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
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