Google has announced that it prevented $2 billion worth of fraud in 2022 on Google Play Commerce by tackling bad actors that were using different strategies to make money. Some tricks fraudsters tried included using a compromised payment method, asking for a refund for an in-app item that was already consumed, and the use of scammed gift cards for purchases.

Google has two tools that developers can use to help reduce the abuse of their apps, they are the Voided Purchases API and Obfuscated Account ID. The Voided Purchases API provides you with a list of in-app and subscription orders for each user that has been voided – users are then unable to access the products from those orders.

With the Obfuscated Account ID, Google can detect fraudulent transactions such as devices making purchases on the same account within a short space of time.

To further reduce fraud, Google recently released Purchases.product.consume for developers. Explaining this feature, Google said:


If you want to learn about the other measures Google is planning to put in place this year to fight fraud and boost safety, check out this blog post from earlier this month that outlined the company’s plans.