Exim's bad_sender_hosts not working?

We have issues with a Chinese spammer.
216.37.65.218.broad.ja.jx.dynamic.163data.com.cn

This was already a couple of times. So I thought I just block that complete host in the /etc/virtual/bad_sender_hosts file like this:
*.dynamic.163data.com.cn
and reloaded Exim (or restart it).

And what do I see in the firewall today?
Mon Sep 18 20:35:58 2023 218.65.37.216 (CN/China/216.37.65.218.broad.ja.jx.dynamic.163data.com.cn), 5 distributed smtpauth attacks on account [info] in the last 900 secs

So how come he is able to do that, while Exim should already block him due to the input in the bad_sender_hosts file?