I bought items from shopping app Temu and was surprised when they arrived

I used to get a lot of Wish adverts on Facebook, offering products that had varying degrees of absurdity that made me question who on Earth Facebook thought I was.

More recently I started getting adverts for Temu - a site I had never heard of before, but the bright orange logo haunted my social media steps. Looking at it, I couldn't quite believe the prices - was it really going to be less than £3 for shoes, less than £6 for a dress, mere pennies for stationery?

Seemingly, the answer was yes, the prices really were that low, but I had some Googling to do. According to Google Trends, searches for Temu in the UK took a massive leap in April this year, with the top searches asking "is Temu legit".

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Is it legit?

And I was one of them. As with any app that has millions of subscribers, there was a massive mix of positive and negative reviews, but overall, in my own personal judgement, I felt it was about the same level of risk as Shein - Temu's main rival. And that is not to diminish the risk, there are some who feel apps like Temu and Shein, which are largely Chinese-owned companies, collect too much data, and while you could argue so do all the other apps on your phone, there are considerations to make.

I spoke to Elliot Sandell, Network and Security Architect, VCG Technology Service about the potential risks, and he said: "There are concerns from US lawmakers around its supply chains but I haven’t seen any specific Cyber Risks directly from the App.

"With regards to digital risk, it’s become increasingly popular due to its referral scheme, and in particular sharing to social media. Users should be very careful about inherently trusting such links on social media as while