Asked to set up a credit card account for a Chinese person

[pprendeville]

Was enquiring about getting my laptop motherboard replaced by a friend of the family who is a techie. After a few minutes discussing requirements the man asks me could I set up a credit card account for him in my home country so he could receive payments from foreigners. Apparently he is big into online gaming and buys and sells things in fantasy games. This typical behaviour in China given I've only met guy 5 minutes? Asked mother-in-law what she made of it (expected her to say don't bother with it) and she asked what % cut was he going to give us. 

[gato]

Good story. :-)

[Lost in Mong Kok]

So he'd have a credit card in your name where you are liable for the repayments...

Typical behaviour in China? More like typical behaviour of a con artist - a poor one at that.

[liuzhou]

How does setting up a credit card account for someone enable them to receive payments? Credit cards are used to make payments.

And all the better if someone else is having to pay!

You'd have to be incredibly naive to fall for this.

[pprendeville]

don't have a clue how it would work (my wife's translating wasn't making much sense to me and I was trying to explain PayPal to him but I wasn't getting very far) but the card would have to be in my name in my country he said. don't hink he's a con artist as he's a friend of the family. he did fix the laptop at least with a new motherboard and a new batter all for 600RMB. the same back home would have cost 300 euro so happy days.

[liuzhou]

don't think he's a con artist as he's a friend of the family

Every con artist is a friend.

It is possible that something is being mistranslated and that he is not deliberately seeking to cheat you, but it would still be ridiculous to set up any finance system in your name for him. The fact that you "don't have a clue" should be telling you something.