A well-known expert receives an RTX 4090 for repair. Upon disassembling the graphics card, he must realize that it is not a graphics card, but rather an almost perfect counterfeit. And he is shocked at how well this counterfeit is made.
Fraud involving expensive hardware happens repeatedly, but usually one is faced with clumsy methods: A new cooler is installed on an old graphics card, damaged devices are received, or an RTX 5080 is delivered, which in reality is an RTX 4080.
The well-known expert and YouTuber “Northwest Repair”, who specializes in the repair of graphics cards and PC components, has now received an RTX 4090 for repair. The owner claims to have purchased it used on eBay.
But the model is an excellent counterfeit, as the expert explains: “This is the best scam I have ever seen.”
A counterfeit that even a savvy expert didn’t expect
What is the problem with the graphics card? The graphics card is not a graphics card at all, but merely a circuit board with fake components: both the GPU chip and the VRAM chips are completely counterfeit and do not function. According to the YouTuber, the device had been sanded down to remove the markings and subsequently laser-engraved with false information.
The big problem, which the YouTuber also explains: An average player or buyer would likely never recognize this fraud. Even if one could place the original and the counterfeit side by side, one would need to know what to look for to truly distinguish the two models. Because the counterfeit has been made really well down to the last detail.
Additionally, it is completely unrealistic to expect a customer to open their graphics card to check such details. Because with a brand new item, the manufacturer’s warranty is usually lost.
In the pinned comment, the YouTuber added that he does not believe that such a thing could be carried out by an individual or even a professional workshop.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that such a fraud could not have come from a stranger or a professional workshop.
Given the quality of the work, this could only have been done in the factory. The question is how these parts get to the USA and who sells them.
Often, providers like Amazon are considered a safe bet when ordering hardware or other valuable products. Because here, usually, thanks to buyer protection, little goes wrong. But with a gamer, it went differently this time. A player ordered a high-end processor from German Amazon and received a counterfeit: Player orders a gaming processor from AMD on Amazon in Germany, instead gets a nasty fake product
In the pinned comment, the YouTuber added that he does not believe that such a thing could be carried out by an individual or even a professional workshop.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that such a fraud could not have come from a stranger or a professional workshop.
Given the quality of the work, this could only have been done in the factory. The question is how these parts get to the USA and who sells them.
Often, providers like Amazon are considered a safe bet when ordering hardware or other valuable products. Because here, usually, thanks to buyer protection, little goes wrong. But with a gamer, it went differently this time. A player ordered a high-end processor from German Amazon and received a counterfeit: Player orders a gaming processor from AMD on Amazon in Germany, instead gets a nasty fake product
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