I Faked Being a TikTok Refugee for Traffic in 3 Minutes: How to Avoid Getting Scammed

Finally jumping on the bandwagon

Chinese don't scam Chinese, but Chinese pretend to be foreigners to scam Chinese?

First, I must admit there are indeed some real foreigners sharing authentically. Under domestic laws and regulations, we warmly welcome international friends to share and communicate on domestic social platforms.

As a freelancer in the cross-border ecommerce industry, TikTok is an extremely familiar platform for us industry insiders, because a large number of cross-border players obtain orders through TikTok Shop, TikTok free or paid video traffic. Therefore, our group is one of the most familiar circles with TikTok and TikTok foreign users. Especially the refugee source country this time, the United States, is the core order source for almost 90% of TikTok players.

But this time I don't want to talk about TikTok cross-border ecommerce (old fans know that I've rarely talked about TikTok in my 200+ previous posts, and I won't elaborate on the reasons).

Instead, an extremely bad phenomenon has emerged between all this: from the perspective of a cross-border ecommerce industry insider, I've watched helplessly as certain industry practitioners use matrix batch account creation, batch reposting of foreign content, pretending to be foreigner personas, thereby gaining traffic (what they'll do next, I have no idea).

I hope this article can remind everyone:

Undoubtedly, my 11 cross-border ecommerce groups have suddenly exploded these past few days. But for those group members who have actually done business - those who truly understand cross-border: ordinary netizens may not understand, but don't you? Those of you who do TikTok, don't you understand?

Everyone usually reposts content from domestic Xiaohongshu, Douyin and other social media to TikTok to gain traffic and sell products. This time it's just a reverse operation. Is this behavior really beyond your comprehension?

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The Principles

Let me share some principles with those who don't know the truth:

1. IP Display Becomes Camouflage

Due to domestic social platform rules requiring mandatory IP display, this has become the best camouflage technique for some people. They only need to use a VPN to pretend to be a #TKRefugee from the United States, or a foreign netizen from any country.

The image below shows my most normal Xiaohongshu account. Simply by using a UK IP to post, it can show that I'm posting from the UK.

2. Fake Persona, Post Fake Content

The next step is to disguise my persona and post related fake content. At this point, almost all content is fake.

I can make it up myself, or I can directly repost from foreign websites, such as reposting their profile photos, social media life photos, or even social media vlog videos, to make my foreign persona appear more authentic.

(A bit too unethical, so I won't show too much)

3. Do Whatever You Want

The next step, I can almost do whatever I want.

So far, I've only used 3 minutes to pretend to be a TikTok refugee and trick some unsuspecting netizens.

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Advanced Scam Prevention

1. The Nature of Scams

Looking at all scam behaviors, including the recently popular Southeast Asia-related scam incidents, we find that the essential implementation methods are extremely clumsy and fundamentally simple. They're just wrapped in various other shells: new financial management, new projects, virtual currency, good opportunities, romance pig-butchering scams.

Under these shells, the specific implementation behaviors are as simple as can be: a few lines of text to establish a fake persona, randomly finding a photo of a rich handsome guy or beautiful woman as your avatar, randomly making up stories - and then they can scam you.

2. Traps Under Hot Topics

Especially under some hot topics and trending industries. Everyone wants to be the pig on the windfall, but in reality, almost everyone who enters becomes a pig being slaughtered.

This is also what I often communicate with my cross-border ecommerce circle readers and fans: I hope everyone maintains bottom lines. In the current cross-border ecommerce industry, which has a certain level of popularity, as long as you have no bottom line, you can make a fortune.

Due to business needs, when I open Xiaohongshu now, my screen is full of cross-border money-making content and scam avoidance content. What can I do? I've been sharing authentic content for over a year, built 11 groups to daily persuade newcomers to stop daydreaming, but you can't stop people from jumping into pits one after another.

3. Is Anyone Really Making Money on the Windfall?

Of course there are, two types of people:

First type, but whose money are they making? They're making money from you guys who want to catch the windfall.

• "《I used TikTok refugees to earn 100k+ daily, beginners can do it too》, DM me if you want to connect."
• "《TikTok refugee hot topic, personal IP/AI/cross-border ecommerce/ How I earned my first pot of gold》"
• "Not recruiting, not selling courses, just exchanging ideas, DM me, suitable for moms and college students"

Go ahead and DM them. One DM, one silent treatment.

Second type, I've also seen many people who put in practical action, using real services and products, excellent authentic content, to get deserved rewards.

I saw on Xiaohongshu a craft-loving girl who was suddenly liked by many foreigners and gained 40k followers overnight; I also saw Chinese programmers who worked overnight to create an overseas web application teaching foreign friends how to use Xiaohongshu. These are people who got results.

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Summary

Why do people always want to take shortcuts? Because steady hard work is too difficult.

But please remember: Those who truly made money on the windfall are people who had already been deeply cultivating in their fields before.

Rather than spending time pretending to be others, scamming for traffic, or chasing quick money, it's better to spend time improving yourself and polishing your products.