This has enabled some people who have earned enough credit to receive home goods without even giving Temu their credit card information. That’s because Temu has launched a campaign on social media in which the more you convince others to sign up, the more credit you earn.

While Temu’s prices are cheap, many new customers actually aren’t paying anything at all.

A Temu spokesperson responded to questions from TIME with a statement from its website: that the company’s prices are enabled by a “deep network of merchants, logistic partners, and established ecosystem built over the years.” How are people getting stuff for free on Temu? Pinduoduo launched Temu in September in order to court the American market, and Temu’s website lists an office in downtown Boston. The breadth of items and prices is remarkable, and the site’s aesthetic comes off as something like a virtual dollar store. A banner brags about items up to 90% off retail prices, thanks to a new year’s sale.

Users on the Temu website or app are immediately besieged by deals of all kinds: running shoes for $17.48, universal wrenches for $4.48, talking toy hamsters for $6.99. The better question is what Temu doesn’t sell. Users who turned to Temu this month as a lifeline for holiday shopping in the face of the highest inflation in a generation made it one of the fastest growing platforms in the U.S. Over the last couple months, posts praising Temu have spread like wildfire across Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok-though many of them use glowing language that appears to be recycled from one post to the next.īut, at the moment, Temu is very much a real platform, offering a variety of real, heavily discounted products, from air fryers to wireless Lenovo earbuds ($8.98), computer keyboards ($15) to clothes ($1.69 for five pairs of socks). On top of really cheap consumer goods, Temu boasts opportunities to earn credits through spin-the-wheel games or if you convince your friends to join. Upon first glance, Temu could leave some users questioning whether it’s legit.

Free download cost is steep