In Europe, many online stores have become popular in recent years, as users have become accustomed to this sales channel. In 2023, according to data from Observatory Cetelem, each Spaniard spent on average 3,476 dollars of online purchases.
There are many platforms accessible from Europe, and many people already know alternatives like Amazon, Aliexpress or Miravía, in addition to the online versions of stores like El Corte Inglés or Lidl. Additionally, recently other stores have started to gain notoriety, such as Temu.
This last alternative has more than 100 million products in its catalog available to the user, but it also has the disadvantage that, having become one of the most downloaded applications in the world, some scams have also proliferated.
What is Temu?
Last year, Temu has gained great popularity globally, beyond what he already has in his home country, which is not small. It is nothing more than an online store of Chinese origin that manages to offer products at low prices by directly connecting consumers with partners, manufacturers and brands. It offers 29 different product categories, including fashion, electronics, home improvement, and pet supplies. It has a great variety, which is one of the strong points that characterizes them,
According to the company on its website, one of its distinctive features is the use of model Next generation manufacturing. This allows companies to adjust their manufacturing processes as demand increases, so they can save on costs and offer lower prices. This is the model on which, according to the platform itself, its success is based. The name Temu, in fact, are the initials of “Team up, price lower”, which could be translated as “Together we lower prices”.
The store’s notoriety has also made it the target of many cybercriminals, whose objective is to seek out the widest possible audience. Now ESET, a company specializing in cybersecurity, offers some tips that may prove useful in avoiding scams and other deceptions that appear in the online store.
How not to fall for scams
There are many occasions where these types of stores attract audiences through social media, with ads on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok which show some products available on the platform. However, this method is also used by scammers to trick people into visiting the store via a fake link, but sometimes they also try to get membership points via codes. One of the most used methods for this is the promotion of exaggerated offers which, of course, are not real.
They also try to create a sense of urgency specifying that this type of offer, which can go up to 90%, is only available for a very limited time. However, in many cases, these types of promotions only aim to redirect the user to a website dedicated to the Phishing to steal user login information.
Temu main page
Free Android
A good way to know if it’s a hoax is detect the presence of counterfeit products. Temu claims not to offer this type of product – although some related companies do – so anything that promises a branded product, but at a much lower price, will surely result in harm to the user. It is true that you can find similar products, but never counterfeits, so if you see one you should be wary.
To deceive many users, cybercriminals also take advantage of other very popular platforms such as Fortnite or Roblox, promising the gift of gift cards with coins from both games. However, the only thing the person behind this deception is looking for is ask users to enter their referral code in the online store to receive rewards. There are times when this type of promotions can be true, in which case each company announces it using its own official communication channels.
And the fact is that referral codes seem to be very important to many online scammers, since this is what they are also looking for when they post fake ads using photographs of famous people to show that they are associated to the online store. As you can see, this type of false official advertising is one of the preferred methods of fraudsters.
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