You may receive messages from 163.com and wonder why that number.
It comes from the fact that ages ago to access the Internet in China, citizens had to dial 163.
Email addresses at 163.com are used by many scammers pretending to be from a company in China but it’s real use is in providing free personal email addresses for Chinese people.
The email from this scammer is about cold metal rolling machinery which the scammer claims to provide.
Such machines cost from maybe $50,00 up to millions of dollars so sending out spam messages trying to find customers would seem very stupid.
But it’s all just a scam – trying to get replies that tell the scammers that the email address is active and hence they can charge more for it when selling tother scammers.
There is also a surprisingly complicated scam where these scammers track people who are searching for information on large machines then offer exactly those machines at a bargain price.
If you get any kind of messages from 163.com delete them as scams and if you get messages from anyone claiming to represent a Chinese company that you haven’t dealt with previously then also delete them as scams.
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Dear Ninja,
163.com is now using US mail. I received a postcard with a big “amazon” logo on it. Excerpts from the message:
How To Get A Gift Card:
“Leave a 5-star rating [of our toothbrush]. Send a screenshot of it to [omitted]@163.com. We will send you a $30 gift card.” Now come the red flags:
“Don’t mention the gift card in the review – this may affect your account safety” ?!?
“If you can’t reach us, try contacting us at a different email address “ !!! No ‘other’ email is given.
Well spotted.
It does cost a lot more to send post then to email but some scammers are switching back to the post.