Google Temporarily Suspends Developers' Ability To Publish or Update Their Extensions On Chrome Web Store After Detecting 'At Scale' Fraudulent Transactions

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The Google security team has indefinitely suspended the publishing or updating of any commercial Chrome extensions on the official Chrome Web Store following a spike in the number of paid extensions engaging in fraudulent transactions.

  • Google said the wave of fraudulent transactions began earlier this month. Google engineers described the fraudulent transactions as happening “at scale.”

“This is a temporary measure meant to stem this influx as we look for long-term solutions to address the broader pattern of abuse,” said Simeon Vincent, Developer Advocate for Chrome Extensions at Google. The ban on publishing or updating impacts all paid extensions. This includes Chrome extensions that require paying a fee before installing, extensions that work based on monthly subscriptions, or Chrome extensions that use one-time in-app purchases to get access to various features. Existing commercial extensions are still available for download via the official Chrome Web Store, however, extension developers can’t push new updates.

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