Importers on English-language forums describe the same sequence more often than they describe an outright empty factory: the cargo is “on board,” a PDF arrives, the factory wants the remaining 70%. The file looks like a bill of lading. It is marked draft, or it has no container number, or the carrier will not confirm the booking. The money leaves. The vessel does not.
This is not a new scam with a new name. It is a document the buyer treated as a sailing when it was still a worksheet.
1. What a real on-board set usually has — and what a draft does not
A document you can pay against, if your PI says “balance against B/L,” is an on-board bill (or a telex release / SWB your contract actually named) issued by the carrier or a named NVOCC, with:
- vessel and voyage, or a booking the carrier will confirm
- container and seal numbers that exist in that carrier’s system
- a shipped-on-board date, not only a document date
- the same product description and quantity story as the PI and the invoice
A file stamped “draft,” “specimen,” or “for check” is a layout. So is a Word export with a logo and no booking. So is a house bill from a name you cannot find as a forwarder. Forums fill up after someone paid on one of those.
2. How to check without becoming a detective
You do not need a legal department for the first pass:
- Call or use the carrier’s public tracing with the booking or container number. No hit → not on a ship.
- Ask your own forwarder whether that house bill belongs to a real office.
- Match container, seal, and carton count to the packing list you already approved.
If the factory refuses a traceable number and pushes “pay first, we will send the original later,” you are being asked to fund a PDF.
3. Write the trigger so “B/L copy” cannot mean a draft
On the PI, do not write only “balance against B/L copy.” Write:
- on-board bill or named equivalent (SWB / telex release)
- issued by the carrier or a named forwarder
- with container and seal, traceable before the wire goes out
- drafts and unsigned scans do not start the clock
If you also inspect, the report and the on-board document are two gates, not alternatives.
4. Platform orders do not change the paper
Trade Assurance and similar programs still run on documents the seller uploads. A draft uploaded as “shipping proof” is how disputes become a fight about what the PDF was. Off-platform wires against the same draft are worse: there is no portal, only a bank record.
The bottom line
The balance is for goods that have entered the carrier’s system, not for a layout that looks like a bill of lading. If the file says draft — or the container does not trace — it is not a sailing. It is a request for money.
If you need the on-board-document trigger written into the PI in English and Chinese, I can prepare the clause and issue a stamped set under our bilingual translation company seal when you need one. See what this covers.
Carrier documents and Incoterms vary. Confirm the exact instrument with your forwarder before you wire the balance. General sourcing guidance, not legal advice.