“Do you know that saying: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is?”
Katie Ring, also known as The Self Defense Girl online, put the question to her followers on TikTok.
“Well, it seems like it might be the case for Temu.”
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Her warning came after a number of people reported their bank being hacked, or their details leaked, after purchasing items from Temu.
No evidence has been found of Temu releasing customers’ details.
However, the reports are yet another blow to Temu’s reputation, after the US government handed down a report in June saying there is an “extremely high risk” that Temu’s supply chains have forced labour.
Temu has more than 80,000 suppliers and is the fastest-growing online retail brand in Australia.
The app launched in Australia in April. It is now the eighth-largest online retail brand by audience size, according to Ipsos data, and registered more than 9.2 million users in June.
In March, Temu’s sister app Pinduoduo was suspended by Google after versions offered outside Google’s Play store were found to contain malware.
The malware can bypass users’ mobile phone security, CNN reported.
It can then monitor activities on other apps, check notifications, read private messages and change settings.
“Everything on Temu is insanely cheap — aka too good to be true,” Ring said in her viral TikTok.
“It’s going to be a no for me.”
But she knows many people will still use the platform anyway.
“Please at least check out with a third-party payment platform like PayPal or Apple Pay,” she said.
“Don’t go entering your debit or credit card information into those forms.”
Given the rise in credit card scams some people are also experiencing, it can be hard to know who to trust, Ring said.
“If you get fraudulent bank notifications, still check your bank account,” Ring said.
You can also contact your bank to be sure, she said.
‘Red flags’
Most users in the comment section agreed with Ring that something seems amiss with Temu.
“Temu immediately threw up red flags for me,” one user, who claimed to work in credit card security, said.
“When will people learn that when something is so cheap, it’s probably because someone is being exploited and abused at best,” another person said.
Others said they have been using third-party payment platforms for some time, for all shopping where possible, as a result of security concerns.
“I will never buy anything online unless they have PayPal or Apple Pay,” one person said.
Mounting concerns
The warning about Temu comes amid mounting concerns over cybersecurity when shopping.
Australians lost a huge $74 million to online scams last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reports.
It says a website is probably a scam if it:
- Sells items at significantly lower prices than usual or when compared to other sites;
- Has something unusual about the payment method, such as only offering a single payment option or asking for payment via gift cards or Bitcoin;
- Only includes positive reviews or reviews light on detail;
- Includes an urgent warning or error message asking you to click a link; and
- Advertises a way to make quick, easy money with little or no risk or effort.
Report scams to the ACCC via the report a scam page to help alert others.
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