The former head of Apple’s App Review team has claimed that an anti-fraud push has seen innocent developers’ accounts terminated without warning or evidence. Apple is holding onto millions in developer payouts too, he claims.
In a Substack post called ‘The App Store’s new scandal’, former App Review boss Phillip Shoemaker claims that he has spoken to multiple developers who have been wrongly accused of fraud by Apple.
They have had their account terminated without any explanation, and no evidence has been provided, he said. In short: “Apple can accuse you of fraud, shut down your account, keep your money, and never tell you why,” Shoemaker writes.
Apple automatically removes all of a developer’s apps from the App Store and terminates their account without warning when an app is flagged for fraud, he said. And the crackdown seems to have been getting worse recently, he claimed.
“The problem isn’t an isolated glitch – it’s systemic,” he continued. “I’ve spoken with multiple developers who’ve experienced the same. These are not fly-by-night operations; many have operated cleanly for years, with real customers, legitimate ad networks, and consistent performance. And yet, they’ve been treated as if they were criminals.”
“And for some reason, this is accelerating. From what I can see, there are more and more of these happening every week.”
Shoemaker goes onto suggest that some marketing agencies are being hired to intentionally run fraudulent ad campaigns or engagement spikes for a competitor’s app, deliberately mimicking the kind of behaviour patterns that trigger Apple’s fraud detection systems. This results in the competitor’s app getting flagged for fraud, terminated and their revenue frozen, he alleged.
“It’s a ruthless strategy – and Apple’s automated systems, lacking transparency and human review, are being exploited to make it work,” he continued. “These “marketing agencies” have found a new form of corporate sabotage, and Apple’s rigid process is enabling it.”
Shoemaker says he has personally written to Apple CEO Tim Cook about the issue, but has not received a reply. He concludes: “Apple has always been at its best when it treated developers as partners, not as potential criminals. The App Store’s success depends on developer trust — and right now, that trust is slipping away.”
