Scammers are among the lowest forms of life, but they can be cunning. Recently, there has been an increasing number of scams that try to rip people off by selling expensive items without the ones that make them expensive. The fake RTX4090 is just one example. After all, it's the chips under the hood that actually make products like the RTX4090 or the i9 14900K. 

HKEPC (via Tom's Hardware) reports that Safedisk, one of the world's leading overclockers, fell victim to a scam that bought the Core i1 9 14900K. But this was not a low-end I14900 chip marked as 3K. It did not die at all, it is absolutely useless.

Overclockers are always on the hunt for a golden Cpu, in this case, Safedisk probably thought this was a good opportunity to grab a chip on the cheap on the off chance it was a gem. But upon arrival, it was obvious what was not as they seemed.

First, it arrived with a sticker saying that if the chip was taken out of the clamshell, the warranty would be void. I'm sure you can actually use the product with a fine print of Intel's CPU guarantee, but for creative persuasion, 10 points will be awarded to the scammer. Still, Safedisk went ahead and tried to get the chip to boot.

It was at that point that Safedisk removed the heat spreader from the mysterious non-booting CPU and discovered the free space where the silicon die should be present. At least there was no face emoji of a troll sitting there, it would have been really insulting.

But this isn't really funny, it's sad. I mean, why do scammers care about things like this?" It seems like a lot of effort with a lot of risk. Maybe the scammer is working for a company contracted with Intel or fab, and this is an easy way to make a few dollars from some failed product directed to bin

The lesson of the story is to be careful with who you buy from. A seller who pops up with a century deal, but with zero reputation or feedback should be an automatic disqualified person. It's not like thinking about buying a brand to spanking a new fake Samsung1080Pro SSD. In fact, I did for 0.5 seconds.

Practice Safe Shopping!