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China-based online shopping platform Temu reportedly spent up to USD 962 million on advertising across Meta’s Facebook and Instagram in the UK and 27 European Union countries. A recent investigation has raised questions over whether a large portion of that spending went toward influencers who may not actually be real.
The investigation, conducted by Czech nonprofit Online Risk Labs (ORL) and reviewed by Fortune, found that 73 of the top 100 creators used in Temu’s partnership advertising campaigns were likely fake accounts. It remains unclear whether Temu knowingly worked with such accounts or was itself misled by scammers.
One account identified in the research was ‘Ya Lily’, which had 183,000 Instagram followers and another 129,000 Facebook followers under a different name, ‘Must good’. Her posts, containing links to Temu products, were boosted by the company and viewed more than 1 billion times across both platforms over the 16 months ending April 2026.
According to ORL data, Ya Lily’s content appeared in nearly 109,541 Temu advertising campaigns during that period, averaging about 225 campaigns a day.
ORL estimated that Temu spent up to USD 962 million on such advertising between January 2025 and April 2026. The estimate was based on total impressions and average cost per reach. The organization said Temu’s spending accounted for nearly 2% of Meta’s revenue from Europe in any given quarter.
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ORL found that 100 creators accounted for 74% of Temu’s partnership ads in the region between January and April 2026. They ran more than 1.4 million ads, generating a cumulative reach of 16.9 billion.
73 percent of these accounts had changed their usernames at least once, while one account changed its name 15 times. Only eight were verified with a real identity.
Despite targeting European audiences, 28 of the top 100 accounts were based in Russia and 19 in China. Only six were based in the EU or UK.
Temu’s advertising activity was also significant. Between January 2025 and April 2026, 31 official Temu pages ran more than 9 million ads across the EU and UK, generating 134 billion views. Partnership ads accounted for 65.8% of those ads and 49.6% of their reach.
Neither Temu nor Ya Lily responded to multiple requests for comment from Fortune, while Meta declined to comment. ORL has filed a report with the EU’s Digital Services Act regulator seeking a risk assessment of Temu’s influencer accounts. There is no evidence that Temu’s advertisements themselves are fraudulent.
