Purpose of this resistor?

So I am dismantling and ripping into a cheap Chinese counterfeit phone charger and revealing all that I see wrong with it. One thing I could do with some insight into though is the purpose of a resistor.

It is basically a 3.3Ω resistor which is in series with the mains (240V) input into the bridge rectifier:

What are they trying to achieve there?

(Mind, given the state of the rest of the circuit maybe even the designers don't know?)

Should it in fact have been a fuse?

• What is the Issm rating of the bridge rectifier? This could be a surge current limiter to "protect" the bridge. Whether it's an adequate one is another matter. 35A * 3.3 ohms plus stray resistance isn't too far off 110V (arguably not 165V, nor 230VAC) – Brian Drummond Aug 30 '16 at 17:47
• Was it marked 3.3 Ω or did you measure it? If you measured it could be a self-resetting fuse. – Transistor Aug 30 '16 at 17:48
• @BrianDrummond $I_{FSM}$ is 35A. It's an MB6F – Majenko Aug 30 '16 at 17:49
• @Transistor Both: electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/255091/… – Majenko Aug 30 '16 at 17:50