Mark ZhongPayment structure · Individual payee
The Chinese supplier asks you to pay a personal account
The product may be real and the salesperson familiar. The proposed recipient is still not the company that owes you delivery.
The buyer is asked to pay an employee’s bank account, a personal Alipay or WeChat Pay account, a local “friend,” or an agent that will settle RMB with the factory. Reasons often include fees, tax, foreign-exchange convenience or order size. Those explanations do not remove the identity and documentation gap.
Questions to answer before payment
- Why can the contracting company not receive its own sale proceeds?
- Will the company acknowledge in the signed order that payment to the individual discharges the buyer’s obligation?
- Can the payment be reconciled to a compliant commercial invoice and export transaction?
- What refund, dispute or platform protection remains?
- Is the proposed route permitted by the buyer’s bank, accounting and import rules?
UK HMRC supply-chain guidance lists cash-only instructions and payments to third parties or offshore as warning signs requiring further enquiry. It does not say every such payment is fraud; it supports treating the route as higher diligence, not business as usual.
Safer default
Pay the contracting legal entity through the documented order or an approved platform route. If a third party is unavoidable, obtain professional banking, tax and legal advice appropriate to the jurisdictions and amount.
What Mark’s check covers
I can map the supplier’s legal entity, PI issuer and named recipient using the documents you provide and identify the unresolved relationship. I cannot authenticate personal account ownership with a bank or advise that an informal transfer is compliant.
Long-tail searches this case answers
| Query | Intent |
|---|---|
| Chinese supplier personal bank account | Payment-risk check |
| factory asks payment to employee account | Third-party payee |
| pay Chinese supplier by personal Alipay | Informal RMB payment |
| supplier wants payment to local agent | Relationship documentation |