Action Fraud alerts UK public to surge in Temu scam emails

Action Fraud, the UK’s dedicated centre for reporting fraud and cybercrime, is issuing a warning to the public following an alarming spike in scam emails purporting to be from a popular e-commerce marketplace.

In six weeks, they have documented 30,000 instances of fraudulent emails, all masquerading as communications from Temu.

These emails dangle the enticement of winning free products simply for completing a survey, a tactic designed to lure recipients into a trap.

The embedded links do not lead to legitimate rewards but rather redirect to bogus websites.

The purpose of these sites is to harvest personal and financial details from unsuspecting victims.

‼️We’ve seen a huge rise in phishing reports related to online shopping scams. These FAKE Temu emails have been reported 30,000 times!

✅ Report suspicious emails by forwarding them to: [email protected]

ℹ️ Your reports have led to the removal of 268,000 scam sites pic.twitter.com/6L6t4zRnm0

— Action Fraud (@actionfrauduk) December 22, 2023

Action Fraud’s message to the public is clear: “If you have doubts about a message, contact the organisation directly.”

The advice is to ignore the contact details provided in the suspicious message and instead, use the official contact details found on legitimate websites.

This precautionary step is vital as no authentic bank or institution would request sensitive personal information via email.

The role of the public is pivotal in combating such cyber threats.

Individuals who encounter suspicious emails are encouraged to forward them to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service at [email protected], this contributes to a larger defensive strategy against online scams.