Monday, July 17th 2017
RMA Fraud on Amazon Targeting AMD Ryzen Buyers
Amazon inventory of AMD's Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 processors seem to be suffering from RMA fraud, if several reddit reports and a general article from WCCFtech are to be believed. The RMA fraud appears to consist of a scheme in which an unknown party has been buying up quantities of Ryzen 7 or 5 series CPUs, and RMAing them back to Amazon with a fake CPU inside. The fake CPU appears to be an older Intel-based LGA packaged model, ironically.
The RMA gets by because the heatspreader is relabeled with an authentic looking AMD Ryzen label, which is presumably enough to fool a very PC-knowledge limited Amazon RMA check-in employee. This means the product gets sold again as an open-box item, as usually happens with RMAs.Fortunately, being these are LGA processors and Ryzen CPU motherboards expect a processor with well, pins, the odds of damage to your motherboard from even a novice PC builder trying to force the CPU in are quite low. It will be immediately apparent something is wrong. For its part, Amazon appears to be handling the crisis well, refunding affected buyers and even issuing gift cards for their trouble and time. Still, this is something to watch out for in open box items or especially market place items on the Amazon general store.
The RMA gets by because the heatspreader is relabeled with an authentic looking AMD Ryzen label, which is presumably enough to fool a very PC-knowledge limited Amazon RMA check-in employee. This means the product gets sold again as an open-box item, as usually happens with RMAs.Fortunately, being these are LGA processors and Ryzen CPU motherboards expect a processor with well, pins, the odds of damage to your motherboard from even a novice PC builder trying to force the CPU in are quite low. It will be immediately apparent something is wrong. For its part, Amazon appears to be handling the crisis well, refunding affected buyers and even issuing gift cards for their trouble and time. Still, this is something to watch out for in open box items or especially market place items on the Amazon general store.