I joined RedNote, the TikTok alternative in China, and have lived to regret it

When Congress passed the TikTok ban, I thought I would check out Xiaohongshu, aka rednoteChina's response to social media app suddenly flooded with US protestsTikTok refugees".

The first few hours of scrolling through the app felt like stumbling into a cozy corner of the internet.

The interface was mostly in Mandarin, but the content spoke a universal language: cute pets, travel photos (Chinese cities look adorable), people welcoming TikTokers, and enough Chinese food videos to make anyone hungry at 3 a.m.

Then I posted my first photo, and that's when things got weird.

Within minutes, my inbox was filled with messages from alleged American users. First red flag? Usually, dozens of cute girls don't bombard me with requests to hook up.

Another weird thing I noticed is that each account has a Nigerian IP address, clear as day in their account details – although you'll miss it if you're just looking at the English words in their bio.

Each account also has details in Chinese, and if you take the time to examine them, you'll realize that each RedNote account automatically lists the country of origin, with the country code, of the registrant.

takes "B Elizabeth0“(ID: 26204885628), who sneaked into my DMs claiming to be a 28-year-old American woman looking for friends.

Show her profile Stunning woman executing your typical sultry poses, including my personal favorite: the numbness Selfie mirror.

However, I was saddened to learn, through a reverse image search, that the account had my profile picture and videos stolen from them @curlygirlxoxoan Instagram model with 140,000 followers who mixes fitness content with OnlyFans promotions.

Is nothing sacred? What's worse is that the video "she" posted on RedNote was just that Stolen from TikTok.

The real model probably doesn't realize that her identity is being used to scam people all over the world.

I tried to contact her on Instagram but did not receive a response. She was also active on Onlyfans, but since I'm poor, I didn't contact her there.

She probably doesn't care that much, influential people suffer from impersonation All the timeSocial media sites do little to combat scammers.

The rules of the game that scammers follow become clearer after the next two posts. "Nancy Adonis" (ID: 26207772180) and "Dana Michael 2"(ID: 11558103341) hit me within seconds of each other. Both accounts had Nigerian IP addresses and reverse bios: 'Live and let live' and 'Happiness is free.'

The conversation they started could have been transcribed: “Hello!” followed by "Do you speak English?" And the inevitable “Where are you located?”

These were not just random attempts. The scammers clearly did their homework, using digitally altered images that were different enough to bypass reverse image searches.

But their compressed videos — which may have been downloaded and re-uploaded multiple times to avoid exact visual matches — revealed the game.

I talked a little bit with Nancy Adonis. She told me she lives in Boston.

What a coincidence! I told her I was vacationing in Boston, too. I asked her to be more specific about where she lives in Boston.

She told me that she had moved to Okinawa, where she was taking care of military personnel in the hospital. Have you entered the whirlpool of World War II?

To clarify, she gave me her address so we could meet her once she returned.

Apparently she lives in a bar: Bar Carltanto be more specific. The perfect girlfriend?

Another interesting case was a scammer who built an entire website Fake personality Using content from Rockstar Kristin, a food and travel influencer from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

The real Christine has 83,500 followers on Instagram And publications on international cuisine. The fake version just wanted to know my location and liked my smile.

RedNote (left) vs original Instagram post (right).

She reached out to the original Rockstar, Christine, to alert her about her stolen identity and confirm whether she was the person behind the account.

After all, she might have traveled to Nigeria, bought a phone line, registered her account, complimented my smile, and then returned to the United States.

Unfortunately, she did not respond either.

Scammers are exploiting a perfect storm: the sudden influx of Americans protesting the TikTok ban, coupled with language barriers that make people grateful for any English conversation and an interface foreign enough to make users question their instincts.

Not many people realize that RedNote has an English translation optionIt's buried deep enough in the settings to make new users feel lost.

Take this next example. The regular UI shows random Chinese characters and appears as if the profile is from the US, according to the bio.

However, when translating the characters, you can see that the real country of origin is Nigeria.

People began to notice these oddities. "Be careful of scams. This app is the Wild East now," warned a RedNote veteran posting under the handle: Redneck powerHe mixed English and Mandarin in his warnings. “Don't send your personal data, jokes aside.”

MissKatherine, a newcomer to US RedNote, shared her own brush with scammers.

“I had someone say they were American and had fake photos, but the IP address was from Nigeria,” she said. When she checked her followers, she found more accounts using the same script, all hiding Nigerian IP addresses behind stolen American identities.

The influx of new users to RedNote shows no signs of slowing down. Hit the app 1st place in Apple App Store It made the top 10 on Google Play within days of the news of the TikTok ban.

(I doubt TikTok will be banned given that incoming US President Trump seems more into the app and invited TikTok's CEO to the inauguration.)

In the meantime, I think it's possible that Nigerians really like RedNote, and there's nothing serious here.

Although Nigeria is not part of China's Belt and Road Development Initiative, it receives huge funds from China. It is one of the country's main economic partners.

However, the RedNote environment seems deceptive and full of strange bots. If you want to spend time there, use a simple translation tool and some common sense.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to go talk to an attractive married woman in my area who wants to give me a million dollars.

Modified by Sebastian Sinclair

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