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by est 1184 days ago
even without those shady security practice, the app itself exploited dark patterns for profit. E.g. search for TEMU invites on Twitter.
1 comments

That's exactly the same model of attracting new users when compared to PDD in China. PDD fraudulently promises to provide users with coupons in return if one tries to attract more users. The required invitation count starts at 5 for example, but as the user invites more victims, the required number of invitees grows indefinitely. By claiming that the user has completed 99.99% of the required invitation, the app can actually attract hundreds of new users before the inviter is finally aware that it's just a scam.

ref: (in Chinese, of course) https://view.inews.qq.com/k/20220119A06Z9L00?web_channel=wap...