Electronics

[Mindy D]

Hi. You've all got to see this. I have an iPad. My friend has an iPhone. I went to my text messages to send her a text. On my iPad the five people I most frequently text are listed by initials on the top of the text page. My friend has the initial VF. When I looked at her initials, I saw a tiny,  colorful 

thing hanging onto the VF. I had no idea what this was. I have never seen anything stuck to my friend's initials before. I thought maybe it was some kind of new greeting that comes with OS17.2 because I had not updated to that yet.

OK, I pressed on my friend's VF to open her texts so I could send her a text. Suddenly the little thing stuck on her initials came to my texts. My friend did not send this. It was an ad for Temu. In other words, this ad SENT ITSELF as if it was coming from her. 

I deleted the ad. Unfortunately I did not get a screen shot of what my text messages screen looked like with the tiny picture attached to her initials or with the Temu ad that came. 

I just went back and was able to recover todays texts and I took a screen shot of the ad message but the little tiny attached thing doesn't show in it. I then deleted the ad again. I will be posting the ad in the following text.

I called my friend and her niece had sent her the ad, it just latched onto her and will go to everyone like a chain letter.

I stay away from Temu because of the problems it's company has had with having their app get out of its sandbox and steal information from other apps on users devices and stel contact as well as sensitive information and install malicious software on devices. 

Ive never had to worry about being sent malicious texts since my iPad has no phone number and I only can get texts from friends. I've never had a single company text me. 

[Mindy D]

[Mindy D]

The little red square I drew on the page above is where the tiny attached colorful thing was. My friend's initials are circled in green. Initials are used when you don't put friend's photos into your contact list on iPad. 

[bonnielu]

I buy from Temu all the time.  They do tend to track my selected item categories.  I get one email after another with similar selections. However I have gotten good service and really nice items for good price points.  

But thanks for the warning.  I will look out for scams and all that fun.  LOL

[Mindy D]

@bonnielu @You can't see this problem. It has the ability to attach itself to your texts without you knowing it. Once attached, when someone goes to text you on an apple device it SENDS ITSELF to them, like a chain letter. We can have no idea what else it's capable of doing. THIS IS NOT ABOUT HOW SATISFIED SHOPPERS ARE WITH THEIR PURCHASES. THIS IS A SECURITY ISSUE.. 

Another problem that the sister app from TEMU was doing a year and a half ago:
I know that Apple 17.2 has a security fix for apps that break out of their sandbox. What breaking out of its sand box means is that the app lets out data that can get into your other apps, and steal the information int them. There was just security fix for this in 17.2. This could include apps such as banking. 

[GenXmuse]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I've stopped even going to their site let alone buying from them. 

[Icegoddess]

I avoid Temu and I'm disappointed that Publix is using them for ads.  I assume it's Publix and not Boarshead since it says that particular product is only available at Publix.  

[cheriere]

@Mindy D  Thanks so much for sharing this information.  I don't see anything like that on my iPad or iPhone...yet.  But will definitely be on the lookout.  

[Mindy D]

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@GenXmuse wrote:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I've stopped even going to their site let alone buying from them. 

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@GenXmuse @The scary part is that I've never been to their site, never bought anything from them and this text seems to have the ability to attach to a receiver of the ad and send itself to their contacts when the contacts attempt to text them. It's like a chain letter, but we don't know what else is included with this text. It could be malicious. 

I'm on an iPad and I've never received a single ad in my text messages before this. There's no phone number on my iPad. This is the first time something like this has happened. 

[LTT1]

@Mindy D 

TEMU is going way too far out of their allowed boundaries if they are hacking into our text messages. 
That is a "no" from me...thank you for posting about this problem.

I have never purchased from them. On Pinterest TEMU has a small orange emblem and so does Amazon

OH NO!