Payment-side due diligence for Chinese suppliers (not QC)

Tags: sourcing ecommerce amazon security checklist

QC protects the carton. It does not protect the wire.

If you import from China and pay by bank transfer (T/T), the failure mode that quietly kills small buyers is paying the wrong entity — wrong beneficiary name, chop that does not line up across docs, or a last-minute “new account / sister company” request after samples already passed.

This is a practical gate you can put in your SOP before any first deposit. Educational due diligence only — not legal advice, not a fraud guarantee.

Disclosure: I sell a printable pack for this workflow as China Import Check (Starter $49 / Pro $79). Buy on site: https://china-import-check.tiiny.site/. Support: [email protected]. You can use the steps below without buying anything.

The three gates before first wire

1. Beneficiary name = contracted company (exact)

Compare character-by-character:

• Name on signed contract / PO
• Bank beneficiary on remittance details
• English name on the PI (if any)

Hold if the account is under a personal name for a company order, the English name is “almost” the same, or they ask you to pay a sister company / agent without a clean written reason.

2. Chop / seal consistency

Check that the company seal story matches across:

• Contract
• Invoice / PI
• Business license photos they already shared

Ask for a clear photo of the chop on those same docs — not only a flat PDF. A usable English ask:

Please confirm the account name matches our contract company character-by-character, and send a clear photo of the company chop on the same docs.

3. No sudden payee change after samples are fine

“Account under maintenance — pay this other account today” is a stop, not an admin update. Re-run full verification or walk.

Red-flag cheat sheet

Decision rule: pay / hold / walk — not WeChat vibes.

Minimal SOP sequence

1. Payment account verification checklist
2. Chop / seal photo checklist vs docs
3. Pre-payment gap check (odd intermediaries?)
4. Red-flag decision tree
5. Copy-paste EN confirmation on WeChat/email
6. Then release deposit/balance per contract

Pack (optional)

I packaged the checklists + EN templates + decision tree as:

• Starter $49 — core payment & chop gates + templates
• Pro $79 — adds T/T-change script, second-source checks, first-order protocol, risk scorecard

Landing / buy on site: https://china-import-check.tiiny.site/

Support: [email protected] · Store: China Import Check

If you’ve been burned by a payment-change request, comment what you’d add to the gate — useful for everyone running the same SOP.

Educational toolkit. Not legal advice. Involve your bank / forwarder / counsel when stakes are high.