Graphics cards are a rare commodity and currently cost a lot of money. Some people are resorting to particularly bold methods because they cannot buy graphics cards. MeinMMO explains what it’s about.
Imagine you run a computer store and, in broad daylight, someone simply removes the graphics cards from your computers. And this is not just a thought experiment; it has actually happened.
What is the current situation? The current shortage of semiconductors continues to keep prices for graphics cards far too high. Even at the end of 2021, there seems to be no improvement in the situation. However, the demand is very high – so high that now some fraudsters are resorting to particularly bold actions.
Stores are securing their gaming PCs against thieves and fraudsters
What exactly has happened? Some electronics retailers currently show a peculiar picture, as the sellers have gone ahead and wrapped gaming PCs with cable ties. But this security measure has a sad reason, as the news magazine TheNextWeb reports (via thenextweb.com).
A user explained to the news magazine that one must secure all computers in the store with cable ties or similar measures: ‘They secured the devices because people would pull GPU, CPU, and RAM out of the computers.’
And on reddit, a user explains that this is not an exception. A friend of his bought a pre-built PC in an electronics store, and the computer was missing both the graphics card and the processor: ‘My buddy sent it back and told customer service, but they said they didn’t care.’
But it is not only retailers who are affected by such bold actions. There are also other cases where graphics cards are stolen.
Internet cafes are being raided to get rare graphics cards
How bad the current situation is can also be seen from the case of an internet café. These are particularly popular in the Asian region as they are extensively equipped. In addition to fast gaming PCs, there are often showers and sleeping options for gamers.
In China, people have gone so far as to raid such an internet café while distracting the owner. While the owner was getting new bins for the users, the suspected thieves removed the graphics cards including motherboards from the computers. The owner explained that he suffered a loss of more than 7,000 euros (via tomshardware.com).
Not only graphics cards affected: A similar case of sought-after gaming hardware recently occurred in Japan. There, a brazen woman sold a customer a PlayStation 5, but only water bottles were in the package. Here, the deceived buyer complained, and the case ended up with the police. Nevertheless, it is shocking what some people are willing to do to make money with sought-after hardware like graphics cards or game consoles.
What do you think about the current situation? Do you also find it shocking how far some people go to get a coveted graphics card? Discuss with us in the comments!
