I enrolled in China &#039’s TikTok Alternative RedNote And Regrettfully Reacted To It.

When Congress passed the TikTok ban, I figured I’d check out Xiaohongshu, aka Red Note, China’s answer to the social media app that’s suddenly flooded with protesting American” Tiktok refugees”.

The first few hours of using the software felt like a warm-up to the Internet.

The program was mostly in Mandarin, but the information spoke a general language: pretty pets, travel photos ( Chinese cities look great ), people welcoming TikTokers, and much Chinese food videos to make anyone hungry at 3 a. m.

Next, I posted my first picture, and that’s when issues got crazy.

Within a few seconds, messages from allegedly National users flooded my inbox. The second red symbol? Generally, dozens of lovely girls don’t attack me with solicitations to join.

Every profile had a Nigerian IP address, clear as day in their account details, which is another odd item I noticed. You wouldn’t notice it if you were only looking at their motherboard ‘ English terms.

Every RedNote consideration automatically displays the country of origin along with a country code for the participant, which is included in each account’s Mandarin details.

Take” Bbyelizabeth0″ ( ID: 26204885628 ), who slid into my DMs claiming to be a 28-year-old American woman looking for friends.

Her profile displayed a gorgeous woman performing your standard celebrity poses, including my personal favorite, the room mirror selfie.

I was sad to learn, but, via a reverse image research that the accounts had stolen the profile pictures and videos from&nbsp, @curlygirlxoxo, an Instagram design with 140, 000 followers who mixes fitness content with OnlyFans promotions.

Is nothing sacred? Worse, the movie” she” posted on RedNote was pilfered from TikTok.

The real type is probably not aware that her true identity is being used to defraud people all over the world.

I attempted to contact her on Instagram, but I was unsuccessful. She was furthermore engaged on Onlyfans, but since I’m weak, I didn’t call her there.

She definitely doesn’t worry that much because social media platforms don’t do much to stop scams and influencers from impersonating them.

After the following two information, the swindlers ‘ handbook became even clearer. ” Nancy Adonis” ( ID: 26207772180 ) and” Dana Michael2″ ( ID: 11558103341 ) hit me up within seconds of each other. Both transactions had Nigerian IP addresses and mirror-image bootloader: “live and allow survive” and “happiness is free”.

Their talk example could’ve been copy-pasted:” Hello”! followed by” Do you respond English”? and the inevitable” Where are you located”?

These weren’t simply random efforts. The scammers had undoubtedly done their homework, using online altered images that were only distinctive enough to pass through opposite image searches.

But their stored videos, which were probably saved and re-uploaded several times to avoid exact visual matches, gave away the game.

I chatted a little with Nancy Adonis. She informed me that she was residing in Boston.

What a accident! I told her I was spending my holiday in Boston, too. I asked her to be more certain about where she lives in Boston.

She informed me that she had relocated to Okinawa, where she cares for military officers in a clinic. Have I entered a World War II period warp?

To understand, she gave me her address so we can join once she comes back.

Obviously, she lives in a table: The Karltan Bar, to be more precise. The ideal partner?

A scammer from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, who used material from Rockstar Kristin, a meal and go influence, to create an fully false image.

The actual Kristin has 83, 500 Instagram fans and comments about global cuisine. The false version merely wanted to know where I was and adored my smile.

I reached out to the classic Rockstar, Kristin, to inform her of her identity theft and verify whether she was the man responsible for the profile.

After all, it is possible that she traveled to Nigeria, bought a phone range, registered her account, complimented my teeth, and finally traveled up to the U. S.

Unfortunately, she didn’t reply either.

The scammers are taking advantage of a great surprise: a sudden flood of Americans protesting TikTok’s restrictions, vocabulary barriers that make English-speaking people glad for any conversation, and a foreign interface that makes users fear their instincts.

Many people are unaware that RedNote has an English language option; it’s simply buried far enough in the settings to cause confusion for new clients.

Consider this second case. According to the profile, the page appears to be from the United States and randomly displays Chinese characters.

But, upon translating the figures, you can see the actual country of origin is Nigeria.

People are starting to see these anomalies. ” Be aware of schemes. This software is the wild exotic south today”, warned a RedNote former posting under ID: Daya Redneck, mixing English and Mandarin in his instructions. ” Don’t give your personal information, all quips aside”.

MissKatherine, an British RedNote stranger, shared her own brush with the scammers.

” I had one saying they’re National with false pictures, but the Internet was from Nigeria”, she said. When I checked her supporters, I found more records using the same text, all hiding Nigerian Internet names behind stolen American names.

Red Note’s constant stream of new customers shows no signs of slowing. Within weeks of the TikTok restrictions information, the software rose to the top position in Apple’s App Store and to the top 10 on Google Play.

( I doubt TikTok will be banned because incoming U.S. President Trump appears to be more in favor of the app and has invited TikTok’s CEO to the ceremony. )

In the meantime, I suppose it’s probable that Nigerians truly love the RedNote software, and there’s nothing really larcenous around.

Nigeria is not a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative growth action, but it receives a lot of funding from China. It is one of the country’s essential financial partners.

Nevertheless, Red Note’s setting feels pretty scammy and contaminated with strange machines. Use the plain language application and some common sense if you want to stand out it.

Now, if you’ll forgive me, I need to go talk to a warm married lady in my neighborhood who wants to give me a million dollars.