Scammers are now laser-engraving GA102 GPUs onto fake RTX 4090 cards, sold for $1400 each

A user has been scammed with not one, not two, but four different GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards, with fake AD102 GPU labels being laser-engraved onto RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 graphics cards, a new scam exposed by a Japanese technician on YouTube. Check it out:

The technician tore apart some faulty GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards that a customer send to him, with none of them working, only to discover that three of them were modded RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 graphics cards, which were picked up from seeing changes to the substrate.

Most users wouldn't be able to discover this on their own without completely tearing apart their expensive -- what they thought to be RTX 4090 graphics card -- but once they were torn down, the repairer noticed that one of fake RTX 4090 cards had a protruding capacitor in the top right, which would normally be seen on an RTX 30 series GPU. There's also a small QR code in the bottom left, which is a little higher than its usual location on the GPU.

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The second fake RTX 4090 had the same spots that the repairer noticed were modded, but also had fake VRAM on the board, while the third fake RTX 4090's substrate made it easier to identify the GPU as the substrate looked way different to the RTX 4090, and the frame wasn't even secured in place properly. Not all of the GPU dies had "AD102" laser-engraved onto them, they're just easier to do by erasing the original one, and engraving it again with a laser machine.

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Lastly, the fourth RTX 4090 that the customer sent in was indeed real, but wasn't working because it had faulty GDDR6X memory chips and capacitors. The technician was able to fix these issues and the RTX 4090 began working without a problem, but three other fake RTX 4090s were just DOA as they had been hacked together. The customer purchased the RTX 4090s for 10,000 Yen each (around $1400 USD or so) and were purchased from overseas, telling the technician to put them aside as he would be sending back the fake RTX 4090 cards to the seller.