The rest of the video serves as a cautionary tale, with the host constantly reminding people to remain vigilant during these times. The shortages birthed by the ongoing AI boom have made people desperate on both sides — the customers yearn for a good deal while the scammers know the market is vulnerable, and they can't leave a golden opportunity like that vacant.
"This is the best scam I've ever seen," says Northwest Repair when comparing a real RTX 3080 core to the fake one larping as an RTX 4090. Ada Lovelace GPUs have a slightly different layout for the MLCCs laid around the perimeter of the core. When you look at them side-by-side, it's pretty easy to distinguish between the two, but you'd need to know this beforehand to catch it. Also, it's not exactly practical to expect that a customer would open up their card to specifically check for this either.
In the pinned comment, the YouTuber said that they don't think something like this could be pulled off by an individual or even a professional workshop. Instead, this is a factory-level job that likely stems from those illicit underground vendors that convert gaming GPUs to AI workhorses with VRAM upgrades. Another viewer jokingly remarked that perhaps this "factory" sent in the fake so they could identify what to improve for free.
Too often, scams like these are just let go of. Northwest Repair recommends filing a police report so the perpetrators can be brought to justice through an official investigation. We've covered similar cases before, but we've never seen the scammers go to such lengths to hide a counterfeit. Usually, opening up the card immediately gives it away , but clearly, the grift is getting increasingly creative.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he\u2019s not working, you\u2019ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-22/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Hassam Nasir Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
abufrejoval At this level of sophistication, the perpetrators might just have been professional repair-people, who got unexpectedly cut off from regular repair supplies… Maintaining an honest family feeding job in this PC economy on a (non-European) hire & fire labour market, could just be beyond reach! I can see those guys making drones next, and not for warring nations, but blackmail… against AI data centers? Reply
USAFRet abufrejoval said: I can see those guys making drones next, and not for warring nations, but blackmail… against AI data centers? ????? This makes zero sense. Reply
thisisaname Factory level scam my behind. All it takes is access to a hot air work station, ultrasonic cleaner and some fake chips. I would not take much skill to remove the chips. However it would take a whole lot more to put chips on that would work, but seeing that put fake chips on skill would not be a factor. Indeed with sighs of the solder pads had been wicked shows poor skills. Buy card >> remove chips >> replace with fakes >> ???? > Profit. Reply
TechieTwo IME authorities don't actually care. If it's a really big financial loss to a company, they "might" follow up. Otherwise it's just a statistic. Consumers in 99% of cases are SOL. Reply
PEnns It never fails to amaze me why people would spend big money on buying electronics from eBay. eBay is an actual auction house with lots of shady characters, not a true electronics / PC place like Micro Center, for example!! Reply
call101010 USAFRet said: ????? This makes zero sense. delete it .. looks fishy. Reply
abufrejoval USAFRet said: ????? This makes zero sense. Think! There are two markets currently exploding with what one would consider PC tech: 1. AI 2. War drones Both are way more attractive than simple consumer PC devices, so that's where people who live off small scale production will go next, especially since in the latter improvisation talents are way more appreciated there. While the two might seem somewhat unrelated at first glance, it's AI capabilities where Ukraine currently leads, because electronic warfare countermeasures from Russia and staff shortages require compact embedded AI to compensate. And your personal morals may just matter little if those two markets are the only ones paying rent and put food on the table. AI data centers as a target: just look what Iran is doing there and I see this becoming very quickly an extremely attractive target for people who look for asymetrics in weapon cost vs. potential damage: current data centers are built with practically zero protection against aerial bombardments (unlike the first gen military data centers), because that causes huge deployment overhead. It makes them extremely vulnerable as you can observe in the UAE already, and other places any day now. Just think what any type of terrorist would be able to do with what the Ukrianians are inventing to defend themselves! Technology never stops with the first way that it's used: it's applied without conscience or constraint everywhere else. Reply
abufrejoval call101010 said: delete it .. looks fishy. No fish here (too far from a coast). I might like gambas, but I generally prefer beef and pork with a few vegetables and a good wine: that we produce locally, practically around the corner! Fish and chips (especially the silcon variety): nowhere close. Reply
Syntaximus Store return scam I could see, but submitting it for RMA…that's a bold move Cotton… Reply
Shiznizzle PEnns said: It never fails to amaze me why people would spend big money on buying electronics from eBay. eBay is an actual auction house with lots of shady characters, not a true electronics / PC place like Micro Center, for example!! I stopped selling tech on Ebay just because of the possibility of a switch and return scam. They get my working unit and return their broken one. Not worth my time and headache. I could sell it on Gumtree with the ad mentioning that any cash you give me will have to be checked by my bank first at the teller. Absurd levels of paranoia but at least then the cash is good and you are not given the opportunity to switch and return. I would be willing to even let you see with your own eyes the card/cpu/whatever working in a computer. I would then take it out and package it for you. Then we walk to the bank where you hand over the money to the teller. If scammers are going to these kinds of lengths to scam people then honest people should also take measures to make sure we are not scammed Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/rtx-4090-sent-for-repair-is-a-sophisticated-fake-with-laser-etched-vram-and-core-this-is-the-best-scam-ive-ever-seen-scammers-pulled-a-factory-level-job-to-sell-a-dud-to-unsuspecting-customer#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/subscription
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.