Fake AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Processors used to Scam Buyers in the P2P Market

[btarunr]

A PC enthusiast in Romania bagged a good deal on a used AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor they found on OLX, an P2P and B2B online marketplace. Only, this wasn't a 7800X3D. In fact, it wasn't even a processor—a complete paperweight. While you can't return stuff you found on OLX, for deals executed through the platform, there are fraud protection measures that can withhold funds to the seller. Unfortunately, as most P2P deals on platforms such as OLX or even eBay, the buyer and seller tend to negotiate a lower price to cut out the platform costs, and transact privately. This is how the enthusiast ended up with the dud. Der8auer discovered this, and offered to buy the processor from him.

Der8auer installed the processor and turned on the machine, and of course it wouldn't POST. So this isn't a case of a cheaper (but functional) processor being mislabeled and sold at a higher price. Der8auer then proceeded to de-lid the processor (remove its integrated heat spreader) to discover that it's a complete fake. There's not a shred of silicon under it. The IHS is designed to mimic the shape of the cIOD and CCD. Der8auer provided some quick tips on how to spot a fake: start with the substrate's solder-mask color—it should be green. The SMDs should have a thin sealant, which protect them in machines with extreme cooling solutions that can have condensation. The substrate itself is thin (under 1 mm), whereas the real chip has about 1.3 mm in substrate thickness. Lastly, look for font and alignment errors on the chip label, on the IHS itself. Be careful when looking for 7800X3D processors in the P2P market, ensure you either have a platform that can refund you, or use a mode of payment that can (such as Paypal). Find Der8auer's video in the source link below.



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[utmode]

Thanks for posting this news. 300$+ purchase in P2P is risky and paypal is must for expensive purchase.

 

[MacZ]

The buyer tried to scam the platform in the first place ... sorry but not sorry for him or others like him.

 

[AusWolf]

"have a platform that can refund you" - this a million times. Or even better, buy only from someone you can trust.

 

[Woomack]

This platform makes the buyer confirm if the product is good before the seller gets its money, so it's hard to scam anyone ... unless someone arranged the sale out of the platform and then has no protection. It looks like this time it was this way.

 

[Chaitanya]

Thats a lot of work for scam.

 

[Levantin31]

OLX in Romania does not work like ebay, you meet the person to buy the product in person and pay in cash, or you get it delivered by courier and pay in cash once you check the package but you cannot test the product before paying. OLX is so basic it just got seller reviews after a lot of years active. What most likely happened is the person that tried to buy it got it by courier, he was not trying to scam the app in any way, it's the way it works, and that is why it's full of scammers. There were a lot of 5800x3d on the same app an year ago 100 euros cheaper than the stores that seemed very suspicious to me, I did not know we could have fake CPUs then but something was off.

 

[chrcoluk]

A lot of effort on the machining, but then cant use the right font, sane with the fake samsung SSDs, wrong font used.

 

[Lewzke]

That is power efficient.

 

[Chomiq]

If anything OLX is more akin to craigslist than eBay. At least on eBay you have some sort of buyer's protection.

 

[HBSound]

This is why I buy brand-new processors. You never know what you will end up with in today's world.

 

[MacZ]

This is why I buy brand-new processors. You never know what you will end up with in today's world.

I think that a lot of 13th and 14th generations of high end Intel CPUs thought the same .... oh wait ...

/s

 

[AusWolf]

OLX in Romania does not work like ebay, you meet the person to buy the product in person and pay in cash, or you get it delivered by courier and pay in cash once you check the package but you cannot test the product before paying. OLX is so basic it just got seller reviews after a lot of years active. What most likely happened is the person that tried to buy it got it by courier, he was not trying to scam the app in any way, it's the way it works, and that is why it's full of scammers. There were a lot of 5800x3d on the same app an year ago 100 euros cheaper than the stores that seemed very suspicious to me, I did not know we could have fake CPUs then but something was off.

Then I'm surprised that people use the platform at all.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

The sad thing is, you can run into this scammy crap even at a retail store. I've purchased diapers from Target before where when I got home and opened the box, not only were the contents the wrong size, but the wrong brand. Someone put the a different kind back in (I guess cause they didn't need them), glued the bottom shut, and returned it for a refund, and the store just restocked it. The kicker was, the brand was "Honest Diapers." It really sucks when you're on your last diaper and you discover what you just bought isn't what you need.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

The sad thing is, you can run into this scammy crap even at a retail store. I've purchased diapers from Target before where when I got home and opened the box, not only were the contents the wrong size, but the wrong brand. Someone put the a different kind back in (I guess cause they didn't need them), glued the bottom shut, and returned it for a refund, and the store just restocked it. The kicker was, the brand was "Honest Diapers." It really sucks when you're on your last diaper and you discover what you just bought isn't what you need.

Welcome to a low trust society filled with incompetence. Enjoy your stay, because lord knows the planes wont stop falling out of the sky anytime soon.

 

[ZeppMan217]

The sad thing is, you can run into this scammy crap even at a retail store. I've purchased diapers from Target before where when I got home and opened the box, not only were the contents the wrong size, but the wrong brand. Someone put the a different kind back in (I guess cause they didn't need them), glued the bottom shut, and returned it for a refund, and the store just restocked it. The kicker was, the brand was "Honest Diapers." It really sucks when you're on your last diaper and you discover what you just bought isn't what you need.

Target accepts returns of hygiene products? Wtf?

 

[erek]

"have a platform that can refund you" - this a million times. Or even better, buy only from someone you can trust.

Heatware ratings

 

[Carillon]

A lot of effort on the machining, but then cant use the right font, sane with the fake samsung SSDs, wrong font used.

They were probably scared of infringing the copyrights of the fonts!

Anyway if I was the scammer I'd feel salty I didn't sell it directly to der8auer for 400.

 

[529th]

Wonder why this makes me think of Epic VS Apple and their 'App store'? Probably because it's one of the things that Apple is trying to protect it's customers from? Am I wrong?

 

[MacZ]

Wonder why this makes me think of Epic VS Apple and their 'App store'? Probably because it's one of the things that Apple is trying to protect it's customers from? Am I wrong?

Apple is trying to protect its customers from not giving their money, and that's about it. The rest is side effects.

To be clear, this is also how other companies function. Except maybe they also have other ways of extracting money from their curstomers.

 

[close]

The buyer tried to scam the platform in the first place ... sorry but not sorry for him or others like him.

How is that exactly? It looks like this site works like classified ads in the newspapers. You read the ad and then deal with the buyer directly. Very different from eBay like market places.

But anyway, the story looks very fishy to me as far as I could find from the details in different articles, which admittedly could miss a lot of nuance. Does der8auer buy non-functional components all the time from random people who were scammed? Because until he opened it up this was just a broken CPU. Thousands of fake or broken parts gets sold on classifieds sites or actual retail channels every day. What made der8auer come to the rescue this time? When I get scammed on eBay or Amazon can I just get der8auer to bail me out? Or only if it looks like a good promo opportunity? As I said, a bit fishy in my eyes (nose).

 

[Zach_01]

I would only buy used (never did so far) when I have the ability to get the product test it for a couple of days and decide to keep it.

Here we have a local market platform like a small amazon (with login accounts) where you can buy online new hardware from online or physical stores. Not just hardware but many different products.
Less than a year ago there is a new section for used parts that users can sell. Sold my old 5700XT 6 months ago. When someone wanted it, I packed it, and a courier came and received it.
The "buyer" received it, test it and decided to keep it. Then I got my money to my bank account. Until then the payment was on hold by the platform. The buyer has the option to not keep the used product for whatever reason within 2 days.
This is how used marketplace should always work.

I understand that this is not as easy when the market is international, so I'm staying clear of those.

How is that exactly? It looks like this site works like classified ads in the newspapers. You read the ad and then deal with the buyer directly. Very different from eBay like market places.

But anyway, the story looks very fishy to me as far as I could find from the details in different articles, which admittedly could miss a lot of nuance. Does der8auer buy non-functional components all the time from random people who were scammed? Because until he opened it up this was just a broken CPU. Thousands of fake or broken parts gets sold on classifieds sites or actual retail channels every day. What made der8auer come to the rescue this time? When I get scammed on eBay or Amazon can I just get der8auer to bail me out? Or only if it looks like a good promo opportunity? As I said, a bit fishy in my eyes (nose).

This is not the first time I hear this.
GemersNexus a year ago bought fried CPUs and boards during the AM5 SoC fiasco to "investigate" what was happening. While AMD was RMA-ing CPUs, board vendors did not...
I literally do not care if a YT-er makes money on those videos from the platform as long as the video is informative, it has some value to me.

A lot of crap videos on YT that claim to inform you but turned out to be huge waste of time.
I've narrowed down to handful of YT channels (about tech, hardware, physics, astrophysics) over the years and from those I see only those that interest me. Not every video.

Der8auer and Gamer'sNexus is a couple of those.

 

[AusWolf]

Heatware ratings

The problem with ratings is that you have none as a new user, even if you're a trustworthy person.

Personally, I tried to register for Heatware once, but doing that and linking my other accounts to it was so damn clumsy that I gave up on it. It might have improved since then, I don't know.

 

[MacZ]

How is that exactly? It looks like this site works like classified ads in the newspapers. You read the ad and then deal with the buyer directly. Very different from eBay like market places.

But anyway, the story looks very fishy to me as far as I could find from the details in different articles, which admittedly could miss a lot of nuance. Does der8auer buy non-functional components all the time from random people who were scammed? Because until he opened it up this was just a broken CPU. Thousands of fake or broken parts gets sold on classifieds sites or actual retail channels every day. What made der8auer come to the rescue this time? When I get scammed on eBay or Amazon can I just get der8auer to bail me out? Or only if it looks like a good promo opportunity? As I said, a bit fishy in my eyes (nose).

That's not what is explained in the article. I reacted to what is explained in the article.

While you can't return stuff you found on OLX, for deals executed through the platform, there are fraud protection measures that can withhold funds to the seller.

 

[Tahagomizer]

Someone sold a fake product for the price of a new one to a youtuber? Cut out the middle man, sell directly to the consumer, I like that.
I have to appreciate the craftsmanship of this fake, some thought and effort went into it.

As for OLX: Where i live, in the very beginning, it didn't even require registration. And what is the first thing people do when they get something for free and without strict control? They abuse the hell out of it and scam each other. It still is known as a place to sell or buy stolen or counterfeit goods. I'm not joking, when someone snatched a phone from my wife's hand, I found it on OLX within hours. There is no real protection for sellers or buyers, despite their claims. It's a negative trust place fitting for a negative trust society.
I miss the times of escrow protection... but scammers destroyed even that.