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Last updated on: September 1, 2023
As of 2023, Temu is the latest in a trend of new ecommerce websites popping up every day. It is an online marketplace that seemingly sells anything one could possibly need. Jewelry, clothing, shoes, beauty products, toys, home decor, electronics, pet supplies, and many more products are being listed on Temu by sellers at extremely low prices.
While Temu is a convenient resource for consumers, it does present some challenges for businesses operating online. That’s why as a brand, it is important to be aware of how fraudulent sellers can use platforms like Temu to undercut legitimate sellers, disrupt customer relationships, and damage brand reputations.
To tackle the problem of fraudulent or unauthorized sellers you need to know how to report them and get them taken down. In this blog, we explore how to report a seller on Temu by highlighting a number of key topics, including:
Temu is an online shopping marketplace that offers a wide variety of products at extremely low prices. Temu is owned and operated by a Chinese-based company PDD Holdings which has a similar ecommerce platform known as Pinduoduo serving customers in China. Temu is currently available in the United States and countries throughout Europe.
Goods bought in Temu are shipped directly from China at very low costs. Like most online marketplaces, Temu has its own app. With nearly 30 million app downloads in 2023, Temu is quickly becoming one of the most popular shopping apps in the world.
Temu has also gained traction on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, with many millennial and Gen Z shoppers latching on to the cheap prices and free products across the marketplace. As a result, it has also become a new territory for unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters looking to make quick money.
Since it launched in 2022, Temu’s growth has been significant. Today, millions use the website to purchase a diverse range of products. However, despite its popularity with some consumers, most official brands are not using Temu to sell their products. This has left a space that is being filled by small enterprises, as well as, on some occasions some fraudulent sellers.
Here are a few tips to help you identify these fraudulent sellers in Temu:
You can start by searching Temu’s marketplace for your own products. Some fraudulent sellers may completely duplicate your images, and product descriptions, and copy when attempting to pass your products off as theirs. Others will be more deceptive in the way they present their products in an attempt to convince unsuspecting consumers.
Either way, you should be able to uncover this kind of fraudulence by searching for your products using the relevant keywords. While this manual search may be time-consuming it can be effective when you are looking for specific incidents of infringement on a small scale.
You can also do a wider search for your products on web browsers and apps that have reverse image search functionality. For example, Google Lens allows you to ‘search by image’ with a considerable amount of precision.
You can use this tool, and those like it, to do image searches of your products to see if any links to Temu listings pop up. This will help you identify where and when fraudulent sellers are operating in Temu.
Once you have identified suspicious listings on Temu you can investigate further by executing test purchases.
Through test purchases, you will be able to identify fraudulent sellers and gather evidence. When you receive the products you will have a name, a return address, and other identifying information that you can then use to spearhead your anti-fraud efforts.
At Red Points, test purchasing is an integral part of our investigation services as this allows us to gather evidence and uncover critical information like a real name and return address. This can in turn be used in your anti-counterfeiting investigation to identify large-scale infringers.
If fraudulent products are allowed to flood the market, consumers will also suffer. They may end up buying products that are unsafe and inauthentic while dealing with poor customer service. Consequently, the reputation of the brand will also be compromised.
One effective way to identify potentially fraudulent sellers is by closely monitoring customer reviews. Reviews often serve as a public testament to the quality and authenticity of a product. Brands can analyze patterns in reviews to identify inconsistencies that may indicate the sale of knockoffs or counterfeit items.
For example, a sudden influx of negative reviews mentioning poor build quality, missing features, or discrepancies between the product description and the actual item can be red flags.
Consumers will often be the first point of contact for fraudsters, which makes them a valuable source of information. By reaching out to consumers who use Temu directly, either through surveys, social media, or other communication channels, you may be able to learn about seller trends and incidents that seem suspicious. The information they provide can not only point you in the direction of fraudulent sellers but also serve as vital evidence in getting these sellers taken down from online marketplaces like Temu.
You can report a seller on Temu by sending detailed information about their potentially infringing activity to Temu’s IP protection email: ipprotection@temu.com.
Temu’s online rise has been quite sudden which means that, unlike other marketplaces, Temu does not have a dedicated form or portal to help you report sellers. Nevertheless, you can find their Intellectual Property (IP) Policy on their website, which will help to give you some guidance when you want to report a seller for potential policy or IP violations.
In any seller report about fraudulence and IP infringement ensure that you provide:
Temu states on their website that they aim to respond as quickly as possible to any report you send to them. This is likely to be a matter of days rather than weeks given the swift nature of their overall shipping and messaging processes.
If they reject your report you should consider the content of your report. Did it contain all the relevant evidence? Did you include the correct contact information and all the necessary information about your IP rights? Alternatively, if they fail to respond at all it may be time to consider using a specialized marketplace reporting solution that has experienced finding, reporting, and taking down fraudulent sellers.
Manual reporting can be a very effective method when you are dealing with a small amount of individual cases. However, this manual approach is not sustainable on a larger scale.
Temu is just one of many new ecommerce sites that continue to emerge every year. Unfortunately, these kinds of marketplaces are increasingly being exploited by unauthorized and fraudulent sellers. The solution to a problem this widespread, varied, and complex lies in automation and specialization.
Red Points’ Marketplace Protection Solution is the ideal alternative to manual monitoring and reporting. Our smart, automated software enables you to detect, validate, and remove infringing listings in over 5,000 marketplaces. This ensures that you can receive comprehensive protection for your products and your customers on sites like Temu and many more.
This is how our cost-effective and time-saving solution works:
Our automated bots scan over 5,000 marketplaces every day to identify potential infringements from unauthorized or fraudulent sellers. We can also be more targeted with our searches, and monitor incidents on specific marketplaces like Temu.
We then instantly start to enforce on your behalf. You can speed up the process by leveraging our automation technology to set up guidelines to allow us to immediately act against specific types of infringers on online marketplaces.
You will then have the opportunity to measure the impact of your brand’s brand protection actions through performance dashboards, reports, and real-time data. This will help you develop robust brand protection strategies and learn more about the way customers interact with your products online.
At Red Points, we process over 30 million listings every day. This means that despite the growing size of many online marketplaces, our technology allows us to keep pace.
To ensure you can quickly tackle the problem of fraudulent sellers operating on Temu, you need to act now. Temu’s own intellectual property policy serves as a framework for you to report suspicious sellers. Upon receiving your reports, Temu will investigate the incidents and take necessary actions against repeat infringers. Then you must implement monitoring and reporting processes to help build a safe online platform for consumers.
It is also important to keep consumers informed. Let your customer base know that Temu is not an authorized channel for your products. This will help them steer clear of unsafe products and it will allow you to maintain a strong connection with your customers.
To learn more about how Red Points can help you protect your brand across thousands of marketplaces, request a demo here.
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