An unsuspecting victim fell prey to scammers after they purchased a fake AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor from a seller in a second-hand market. The scene of the crime occurred in Romania, where the buyer had purchased the fake CPU via a platform called OLX.
As the story goes, the victim of the fake 7800X3D purchased the CPU, tried to run it and, naturally, it didn’t boot. The customer then tried to ascertain if the CPU had any PCB connections with a multimeter, and again, nothing came up. Nada.
It is important to note that OLX does have some form of buyer protection in place, so getting a refund for their fake CPU is possible. However, some buyers, in an effort to save money, would engage with the seller of the product outside of the platform, which then puts them outside the protection bubble.
The buyer’s plight actually caught the attention of renowned overclocker Roman “Der8auer” Hartung, who then purchased the fake 7800X3D from them, in order to do a post-mortem on it.
As Der8auer tore apart the CPU, they noticed one of the most obvious giveaways of the CPU’s authenticity was the lack of glue on the capacitors around the IHS. This is especially stark for Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs, but not on non-X3D models.
Not only were the capacitors clean, but the colour of the PCB was more blue than green, which raised further suspicion. Finally, upon removing the IHS of the fake 7800X3D, Der8auer got the most tell-tale sign of its authenticity: the board was empty. Ultimately, they were able to confirm that the entire design of the CPU was different; it was crafted to mimic the design of a genuine processor, right down to the fake CCDs and I/O dies mold.
This obviously isn’t the first time a story about fake CPUs being sold on the market have arisen. Back in May, a South Korean overclocker fell victim to the scam after they purchased a fake Intel Core i9-14900K. Like the 7800X3D, this fake component was devoid of a die, with only an IHS glued on to the PCB.
At the end of the day, the lesson here is the same as it has always been: if you’re planning on purchasing a second-hand or used product via an online marketplace, it’s good practice to always know the product that you are buying and wherever possible, make sure to use customer protection.
(Source: Der8auer, Videocardz)
