Watch out for fake GPUs more than ever, as scammers try to take advantage of higher prices

The RAM crisis also affects video memory, of course, and has sent the price of GPUs upwards - and so fraudsters are trying to capitalize.

Watch out for fake GPUs more than ever, as scammers try to take advantage of higher prices
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Tech Reporter
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TL;DR: GPU scams seem to be becoming more commonplace - and bolder - such as the case of an RTX 5080 reportedly purchased from Amazon, which turned out to be an RTX 5060 Ti. Another case flagged up was a second-hand GPU in China bought cheaply (to repair) which turned out to be worthless, with its RTX 4080 chip switched for a mobile RTX 3060. With scams of various kinds happening, as components become pricier in the RAM crisis, be cautious with your online purchases.

GPU scams have always been around, but there's been a spate of recent incidents as nefarious types try to take advantage of consumers.

Two fresh scams have been flagged up, the first by VideoCardz in which the buyer of an RTX 5080 on Amazon - an ASUS Prime card - reportedly found out that the GPU wasn't a high-end Blackwell model at all.

In fact, as you can see in the above Reddit thread, the RTX 5080 box the buyer received was actually hosting an RTX 5060 Ti, with the labels switched in from the high-end GPU.

These ASUS Prime graphics cards look quite similar - they are both 2.5-slot affairs, with a triple fan configuration - the telltale difference being the single 8-pin power connector with the RTX 5060 Ti (rather than a 16-pin on the RTX 5080).

Of course, it's also true that the RTX 5060 Ti would be identified as such under Windows, after the GPU was installed.

Still, this is a new trick in terms of it being an attempt to pass off a similar board, rather than outright replacing the GPU with a rock or chunk of metal, as we've seen in the past.

These scams are returns, of course, where the swindler buys the GPU, then switches it out and returns the box with the fake (or rock), keeping the graphics card in the hope that Amazon won't notice and the product will be sent out again to another buyer.

Tom's Hardware reported the second scam here, which involved an RTX 4080 sold over in China, although this one was a used sale, not a new GPU. In fact, it was advertised as a non-functional GPU which the seller only wanted the equivalent of $140 for on a second-hand marketplace.

The buyer was hoping to be able to repair the graphics card, but it turns out this wasn't an RTX 4080 at all. As discovered by YouTuber Brother Zhang, a GPU repair expert in China, rather than an AD103 chip, this graphics card had a GA106 die (Ampere - specifically the version used in the RTX 3060 laptop GPU). On top of that, the GDDR6X VRAM chips were either fake, or broken and scavenged from another board.

In short, this broken purported RTX 4080 wasn't worth a cent, with no components of value at all.

A growing problem - and not just with GPUs

The Reddit thread regarding the RTX 5080 scam also contains a number of complaints from buyers of other PC components, so this isn't just about GPUs.

We've seen these scams with RAM more recently - of course, given the massive price increases - and also with storage, notably higher-end SSDs, and indeed the likes of power supplies. Somebody reported getting a Corsair RM750x instead of the RM850x they ordered, and there are a lot more of these incidents floating around now.

All of this serves as a refreshed warning on scams with pricey PC components. Check your purchases carefully when you receive them, and it's worth recording the unboxing of any remotely expensive product with your phone, just in case you need evidence to back up your case when it comes to lodging a complaint with a retailer.

We shouldn't have to do this, of course, but here we are...