Did you buy from Temu because of a video? You might not have known who was behind it

A study by Online Risk Labs reveals a network of fake accounts on Meta that promoted Temu products disguised as influencers. 31 official Temu pages ran over 9 million ads in the UK and EU, reaching approximately 134 billion views. 73% of the top 100 accounts changed their name at least once, and only eight were verified as having a real identity. Following the exposure, Temu stopped funding the suspicious accounts.

A study by Online Risk Labs (ORL), an independent research group from the Czech Republic, uncovered an extensive network of fake Facebook and Instagram accounts promoting Temu products. According to the study, between January 2025 and April 2026, Temu operated 31 official pages on Meta, which distributed over 9 million ads in the UK and EU countries. The ads reached approximately 134 billion cumulative views. A significant portion of the ads (65.8%) were presented as collaborations with content creators, i.e., as seemingly authentic recommendations. An examination of the 100 accounts responsible for the largest advertising volume found that 73% changed their username at least once, 45% did so at least twice, and in one case, the account changed its name 15 times. Only eight out of 100 accounts were verified as having a real identity. 28 of the top accounts appeared in Russia and 19 in China, even though the ads targeted consumers in the UK and Europe. A notable example is the account "Ya Lilly," with approximately 183,000 followers on Instagram and about 129,000 on Facebook, whose content appeared in about 278,000 campaigns and reached over a billion impressions. After the affair was exposed, Temu largely stopped funding the suspicious accounts, and its number of collaboration ads was nearly halved. The study does not determine whether Temu knew about the nature of the accounts or was misled.