Is Temu protected? What to know earlier than you ‘store like a billionaire’

Scams, Digital Safety

Listed here are some scams chances are you’ll encounter on the buying juggernaut, plus a number of easy steps you possibly can take to assist safeguard your knowledge whereas bagging that impossible to resist deal

17 Jan 2024
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5 min. learn

Is Temu safe? What to know before you ‘shop like a billionaire’

If you happen to’re on social media or use Google Buying, the probabilities are you’ve been bombarded with adverts for Temu, a Chinese language e-commerce market that provides rock-bottom costs in comparison with equivalents within the West. $6 for a pair of sports activities footwear? A pc keyboard for $10? What’s to not like?

Given the sheer number of objects, estimated within the tens of hundreds of thousands, and the variety of price-busting offers on provide, many inflation-weary westerners have been drawn to the location, a lot in order that Temu is the most-downloaded shopping app worldwide. In the meantime, others have questioned what Temu’s rise means when it comes to environmental influence and product security and whether or not the shop is definitely legit. Let’s discover a few of these points intimately right here.

What’s Temu?

Temu, the Western-branded arm of Chinese language on-line retail large Pingduoduo, successfully offers consumers the chance to purchase direct from famously low-cost Chinese language producers. It additionally provides customers the chance to earn credit for cash off future purchases, both by means of spin-the-wheel video games or by encouraging others to hitch the location – extra of which later.

Nevertheless, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows and plenty of buyer opinions aren’t precisely glowing. As of the time of writing, the location has only a 2.5/5 score from guests to the US Better Business Bureau (BBB) whereas one-third of opinions on Trustpilot are one-star. Customers often criticize Temu for inbox spam, issue receiving refunds, and objects arriving in poor situation or under no circumstances. Concerns have additionally been raised over the usage of potential pressured labour in product provide chains.

Additionally, a US government agency has accused Temu and fellow Chinese language retailer Shein of potential knowledge dangers in what might deliver echoes of considerations which have for some time surrounded the data practices of TikTok, one other wildly in style Chinese language-owned on-line service.

To make certain, the above doesn’t make Temu a rip-off website. Nevertheless, fraudsters will at all times gravitate to the place there are customers, and meaning latching on to the orange-branded Chinese language retailer as a method to trick unwitting customers.

High 5 Temu scams

Listed here are a number of the most typical ways which were noticed on Temu:

1. Nude celeb ‘leaks’

If you wish to qualify for money or rewards that may be redeemed when buying with Temu, you are able to do so by attractive others to hitch up and coming into your referral code. Nevertheless, scammers have taken to social media to trick customers into coming into these codes. One methodology is to submit salacious photos of a celebrity (e.g., on Twitter, TikTok, and so forth) with a cryptic message hinting that customers can entry nudes in the event that they enter the code into Temu. In fact, there are not any pics and the scammer merely accrues extra referrals.

2. Fortnite/Roblox advantages

Much like the above tactic, a scammer will submit to social media, claiming that customers can entry a free Roblox Robux reward card, enabling them to buy upgrades for his or her avatars or purchase particular talents on the location. All they need to do to assert the reward is enter the referral code on Temu. One other in style lure is the provide of uncommon Fortnite skins. As soon as once more, there isn’t a provide. The scammer is just making the most of the curiosity of social media customers and the truth that Temu remains to be not universally recognized.

3. Dupe merchandise

Though Temu’s sister firm, Pingduoduo, is on the US “Infamous Markets for Counterfeit Merchandise and Piracy” checklist, there’s no suggestion that Temu lists counterfeit merchandise. However there have been reviews of duplicate merchandise which fly near the boundaries of patent infringement with out crossing them. If a person varieties in a search, say, for an Apple product, they is perhaps offered with lookalike objects at a fraction of the value. For the uninitiated, and non-e-commerce savvy shopper, this might lead to some severe purchaser’s regret.

4. Celeb merchandise

One other social media rip-off leveraging the pulling energy of Temu entails pretend posts from celebrities mocked as much as seem as if they’ve a business partnership with the Chinese language e-commerce market. The top purpose right here once more is to influence followers to go to the location and enter the referral code, in an effort to purchase discounted merchandise endorsed by the celeb. As soon as once more, there’s no such deal and the codes merely accrue the scammer extra cash/rewards with Temu.

5. 90% off scams

You must also watch out of web site promoting and unsolicited emails promising big reductions on a variety of Temu-listed merchandise. They are going to use traditional social engineering methods resembling creating a way of urgency through time-limited provides and wonderful offers. However clicking by means of will take you to a lookalike phishing website, the place the scammers will harvest your card information. Now they’ve your private and monetary particulars, however there’s no likelihood you’ll ever obtain your order.

How one can keep protected whereas buying on Temu

To its credit score, Temu is boosting its safety by launching a bug bounty program, in addition to making an attempt to crack down on scams. It recently won preliminary courtroom injunctions within the US towards phishing web sites impersonating the location. Nevertheless, you additionally want to remain alert and keep in mind these security ideas:

By no means click on by means of on hyperlinks in unsolicited emails or on adverts.
If you wish to try a Temu deal marketed on-line, go to the location independently.
Don’t save your cost particulars in your account. Additionally, arrange two-factor authentication (2FA) in order that your account is protected by greater than a password. Temu now provides SMS-based 2FA, which, whereas nowhere close to as safe as {hardware} safety keys and even devoted cellular authentication apps, is best than nothing.
Don’t fall for provides requesting you to sort in a referral code on Temu – particularly ones that includes celebrities.
All the time look intently at what you’re shopping for to keep away from disappointment down the road.
Temu does provide particular offers and low costs. However big reductions throughout the board may effectively be a rip-off. Examine on-line to see if anybody else is mentioning them as such.

Extra broadly, watch out about how a lot knowledge you disclose and what sorts of permissions you grant to the Temu app, or any other mobile app for that matter. Listed here are some easy-to-implement precautions for when you’re involved about disclosing an excessive amount of of your private data to Temu or many different on-line shops and marketplaces:

Whereas there isn’t a proof that the location as such is a rip-off, fraudsters can nonetheless attempt to use it to defraud consumers. You’re suggested to train warning there everytime you do your on-line buying.