Beware: Counterfeit Intel CPU Scam on Used Market

[Music] this is a counterfeit CPU it says Intel I9 12900ks but it's actually a g6900 40 CPU one of these is legitimate and unfortunately for our viewer uh he purchased this CPU which is a again g6900 he paid 500 for it and there's not really much of a way if you don't know to tell if it's real until you plug it in now we've found a few key identifying differences and just one of them that will give you a preview of here is the backside you can see the SMD population and density is much higher on the real CPU this is a real 12900k as this is the g6900 if we put this next to a g6900 it would look identical but that's just one of the methods to detect a fake we're going to show a lot more in this video where there is a counterfeit problem in the second hand Market it's not terribly widespread but it wouldn't take too much effort for it to become widespread so our plan is to give you the tools to learn what a counterfeit secondhand products might look like video card or CPU and as for our viewer fortunately for him um we bought it so he paid 500 plus dollars for the g6900 he filed a police report it was an in-person exchange nothing came of the police report we said okay we'll give you the 500 bucks we got a cool video he got to unscammed I guess but for the rest of you pay attention because we're gonna show how it works before that this video is brought to you by thermaltake and the new series 500 TG argb mid tower case the thermaltake series case is perforated all on the front panel and the power supply shroud including perforations on the cable side of the case for further ventilation to the PSU and hard drive chamber of the case a separate access door for hard drives makes the case easy to work with for three and a half inch storage or the door can be swapped out for a separate LCD panel kit that displays system information other features include a GPU support kit vertical mounting and a hinged glass panel learn more at the link in the description below so before we get back to these CPUs I wanted to bring the topic background to gpus because we've covered scams like this in the past so we're going to go to storage so video cards are much easier to do one of these scams on and it's because you can just flash bios so we have somewhere in here an Nvidia card and also an AMD card where this was actually one of them I think yeah where what they did for video cards especially back in the day when there were fewer authentication checks is uh they would flat the scammers would flash a v bios on it that reads an incorrect name so it's a firmware trick where basically what they're doing is instead of uh say selling you the GTX 1080 that they actually listed or the rx-580 or whatever it is you rewrite the V bios product name but nothing else so let's take a quick example let's say the scammer claims they are selling a GTX 1080 what they're actually selling is maybe a 1060. the way you do this scam is the 1060 the core still says whatever the GTX 10 to 60s product SKU is for the GPU core but unless you take the cooler off you're probably not going to see that that one is etched into the die though unlike the Intel IHS as we just looked like where you can wipe it off so for that scam they write the fake product name into the V bios four in this instance the 1080. so the 1060 gets a real 1060v bios or firmware it operates and behaves exactly like a 1060. but in gpu-z or in Hardware info or something it says GTX 1080. they might go as far as faking the product SKU for the GPU die name as well but that's how video card scams work where it's entirely software the CPU on that we're going to go back to that's all Hardware so let's go back to the CPU now in the case of the video card it's a little harder to tell from a digital page if it's fake the CPU there are some clear signs though so if you can get the seller to actually post real photos of it I don't know how many sellers would be willing to deal with you asking them to write basically a watermark into the photo but if you get a real photo of the product they are selling you can zoom in and check for some of these but first we're going to start with the Practical demo let me check which one's fake and socket this thing to show you what obviously what will come up when we run it because once you install it it's pretty obvious it's a fake the trick is not getting so far as being in possession of it because then they're probably long gone like the guy our viewer bought from it's not a it's not a product placement it's just actually every bench in our GPU and CPU testing area all of them use Arctic coolers which is why we sold them the ad okay let's do a quick boot hey like my power button here that's the uh high-end solution how do you turn it on if the board doesn't have its own power button you you short the pins and you stick a button onto the end of it and there's your power button okay so we have something that says it's a 12 900 KS plugged in let's start with uh let's start with Hardware info I think we have that on here so how about that instantly right immediately identified the fraud that it is so it's pretty easy once again the problem is we had to be in possession of it so if you're not buyer protected some through some online system you're just screwed that's it like the guy's gone so and the police probably don't really care according to uh to what happened to our viewer Because unless you have some serious evidence I mean debac um there's other stuff though so this obviously validates it in software we also have a tool from Intel that does a legitimacy check so this is an Intel official tool it's available online you can download it for free and apparently this was enough of a problem where Intel put software out to help verify whether the CPU is legit and in this instance what it's doing is running a quick test and over here on this screen it's eventually going to spit out some information which I've just manipulated the test a little bit but it's eventually going to spit out some information to give us an answer so let's let that finish okay so so far it passed as genuine Intel which is funny uh brand strain cash all this stuff is passing but I think it's going to end up telling us some additional information all this genuine Intel means is that it is in fact an Intel part which it is this tool won't won't know that it's the lid says 12900k Ass it just knows what the Silicon is telling it okay so it says pass now that's because all this is doing is making sure it's an Intel CPU and it works but over here you can see it's once again telling us the name of the product it's identified it's two cores two threads it gives us the igp this is clearly not uh at 12 900 KS and just for one last thing we're gonna run cinebench and then we'll swap CPUs and we're going to do multi-core because I don't want to be here for like an hour this is actually going to take a really long time okay we're going to stop this test this is pointless there's two there's two tiles rendering you can all right so it's a g6900 I don't know why I thought that would go faster it's been a long time since I've like unironically ran a two core CPU three Center bench so uh let's just let's show the physical differences now let me shut this down so the scammer it's it's an interesting one they go out they buy a genuine CPU so they have money in it then they put time in it and we'll show you how that works who applied this thermal paste it's perfect actually I'll demonstrate it right now this is how the scam works right here this exact thing I'm about to do so you could do it maybe in a faster way but the slow and uh traditional way to get rid of the text on an Intel CPU is to clean it just like this and to show you sort of a before and after foreign [Music] defer to our 7700k this CPU was in and out of test benches for probably five years for us and you can barely see the text at this point so the tax should look something more like one of these but instead it's basically gone you can also see that the nickel plating on the IHS is shinier and that's because it's effectively been polished and buffed several times as the person doing in the case of the g6900 it would be the scam as they wear down the text it will make the rest of it shiny in this case it was from actual use it's just from cleaning thermal paste style that's how easy it is so if the seller is willing to let you install and test the CPU in front of them you have plenty of options obviously the CPU name is different the core Count's different the cache is different igp is different this makes it clear that it's fraudulent but physically there are a couple red flags they start with the IHS markings these look genuine the top edge of the substrate is the giveaway though we counted a total of 60 tiny contact pads that split into groups on a real 12 900 KS there are actually 66 pads on the substrate top and they're laid out differently so knowing this you could compare the photo on eBay assuming they took a photo of the one they have to a photo of a real 12900 KS or whatever CPU it is you're buying then you would count the pads which will Mark individually and compare that they're in the same places because these will never change that's an Intel event it's tempting to call out the swirl trademark as different from the double square trademark that you see but that in itself isn't enough Intel switch from the swirl to the double square in quarter one of 2022. so early samples of the 12900 KS or earlier CPUs will have that swirl and the newer ones won't the last note on the top side is just again that the IHS is shinier because they're probably buffing it down now moving to the underside of the CPUs you can see the service Mount devices or the SMD layout is different between the two just like the pads on the top now looking at these differences won't tell you what the CPU is unless you're extremely studied in CPUs and intel only made one SKU that has that layout that amount of pads in those places so all it actually does is confirm for you if it's what you think it is or what you think you're buying and we would recommend just pulling up images online front and back of the CPU to compare against whatever it is you're being sold if you're buying secondhand first party retailer new inbox you don't need to worry about this don't waste your time if it's if there's something wrong with it try and return it instead now let's talk about the more advanced methods of identification there's two of them and they're both on the how do I check if the Intel processor is authentic page that Intel made on intel.com Intel has this image on its partial serial number for Intel Desktop boxed processor support page Intel's image is lacking in the pixels department and has slight differences compared to the 12th gen so we've taken the liberty of remaking it starting with the markings on the IHS the first thing is the trademark which again will either be the swirl or the double square depending on when it was made the next two lines are the processor name followed by the spec code which is a strain of letters shared by all processors of the same SKU for example the 12900 KS is srldd next is the finished process order or the fpo which is also known as the batch number on CPUs with the double square trademark there's also a 2d Matrix code that 2D Matrix contains the Full assembly test process order or atpo which is also known as the serial number this Matrix is only readable via a scanner or a smartphone app and Intel has instructions for reading it on its page called read serial number for install box processors using third-party applications they're definitely nothing if not literal The Matrix is present on the substrate of all current Intel CPUs and for those that have it on the IHS as well they should match when scanned and then finally there's a partial serial number the atpo that's actually etched into the substrate so this one is immune to the buffing of the IHS that number right there very unlikely a scammer would change that or would be able to do so without anyone noticing and that number is useful if we plug it into Intel's warranty tool so what's important here is that only partial serial numbers are associated with each batch number and Intel actually has a database of all these for tracking and for warranty purposes so you can expose the fake that way so starting with the real 12900 KS as a baseline after entering the batch number and the serial number the tool Returns the warranty information and full serial without any complaint when we give it the information from the fake CPU it complains about the serial number saying quote the atpo number entered is invalid enter visible characters or full atpo for an accurate warranty date as for what this means this is proof that the serial number and the batch numbers don't match and Intel's own database so that one's kind of nice because if there's a real photo of the product you're buying online you can take that information plug it into Intel's warranty tool and have a really really quick check that doesn't require you to ask the seller for all this extra information or for you to have it in your possession now for the last part of this we reached out to Intel to ask them about how this scam is done and feasibly you could do this on AMD as well but Intel's processor is really easy to get the text gone and then you would re-laser it and AMD it might take a little more work just from our experience working with it so until Intel changes their etching process in a way that makes it more counterfeit proof which I mean I don't know I don't know that I would build my product to that kind of standard if I were Intel because this is what they do for millions of CPUs a year so unless it's a widespread problem why would you change it but hopefully they have something better in the future either way for Now intel is the main focus not AMD we haven't seen a fake AMD CPU if you know of one let us know in the comments so we can buy it and we can look into ways you can identify those just like we're doing here but Intel gave us a comment they said quote we cannot account for all methods and implementations used to create counterfeit products however it can be that authentic markings are removed and replaced with alternative visual markings misrepresenting the actual product Intel recommends that customers purchase Intel products from authorized Distributors and suppliers so it's easy to see the motive here from all sides from the buyer's perspective you're getting hopefully a really good deal on a CPU second hand or if it's a brand new CPU maybe you're just getting something that's otherwise out of stock in first party retailers so that's the benefit there for the scammer it's money it's that simple because if you buy a 40 CPU you spend some time with probably a more advanced method than ours here that's much quicker like some kind of buffing or polishing tool and you clean it off and then you have access to something I don't know if it's exactly laser etching you can correct me in the comments but if you have basically some kind of lasering machine to put the new text on it you match the font more or less I mean there's profit to be made there sell it for 500 bucks if it was 40 and congratulations you're an but you also made money so that's why they do it now for protecting consumers you don't have too many options where you buy matters a lot obviously so this particular viewer bought in person and unless you know the first and last name the address they live in the municipality where your police would be able to help you or it's a significant amount stolen or defrauded then you don't have much recourse there but obviously if you're buying through something like eBay you look for where your buyer protected so that you can file a dispute and hopefully just get your money back if if your buyer protected and it also depends on their seller ranking if they're selling it through a particularly high ranking account then perhaps they have more sway to get it decided in their favor so it's also less likely that it's a scam though so those are your main options Intel's basically softly discouraging of course buying some second hand there's a lot of reasons they would do that I don't think that it's related to hey we can sell more first party if we discourage second hand I think it's because they don't have a good solution otherwise so we think it's fine to buy second hand just those are the things to look for now you know hopefully you can buy safer and with more confidence for second hand and as always thanks for watching subscribe for more go to store.gamersaccess.net to grab a shirt like this one if you want to help fund our next intentional effort of scamming ourselves so we can show you how it works and we'll see you all next time

Channel: Gamers Nexus

Views: 311,396

Keywords: gamersnexus, gamers nexus, computer hardware

Id: kUi37kKdQIU

Length: 17min 57sec (1077 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/PapaBePreachin]

tl;dr:

• There are fake Intel Core i9-12900K 12900KS CPUs being sold on the market.
• These fake CPUs have their markings changed using some kind of laser etching.
• One way to spot a fake CPU is by checking if the batch number and the serial number match using Intel's warranty tool.
• If the serial number does not match the batch number, then the CPU is likely fake.
• Intel recommends buying their products only from authorized distributors and suppliers.
• Buyers should look for places where they are protected, such as eBay's buyer protection, in case they are scammed.
• Scammers sell fake CPUs for a profit, with prices ranging from $500 to $1,000 or more.
• AMD CPUs are more difficult to fake, but it is still possible.
• It is not clear whether Intel will change their etching process to make it more counterfeit-proof.

[u/Tfarecnim]

It's disturbing that the fakes are getting better, they used to be a sticker over a random LGA 775/1155 CPU but the IHS made it obvious that they were fakes.

[u/gvargh]

maybe they should start lasering the model number onto the substrate like they do with the serial number lol

[u/alyxms]

This has been happening long before this.

Back when 9th gen was the newest, the 9900K engineering samples (ES) were pretty popular among enthusiasts with low budget. There are two 9900K ES models in particular, QQBY(with P0 stepping) and QQZ4(with R0 stepping). The QQZ4 model is supposedly a later ES model therefore overclocks better and is sold for quite a bit more.

Sometime around 2019, within about a month, most of the QQBYs on the market suddenly disappeared, leaving only QQZ4. And QQZ4's start to show up with P0 stepping, which was previously only seen on QQBY. It's pretty obvious what happened, someone bought up all the QQBYs, re-laser etched the IHS, and sold them as QQZ4s.

Some people noticed and stopped buying 9900K ES, most didn't. Bet a lot of people got scammed.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/Put_It_All_On_Blck]

Fake CPUs and GPUs aren't really a new occurrence. When a product costs hundreds of dollars, and counterfeiters can easily trick the general public, counterfeit products will pop up, whether that's shoes, flash drives/microsd, tires, clothes, watches, or whatever.

Common sense goes a long way.

'Is the retailer a reputable company?'

'Am I buying from Amazon/Walmart/Newegg or a third party seller on their platform?' (Amazon mixes supply, so you still have to be careful)

'Why is the price drastically lower for this product on this site/seller than elsewhere?'

'Why does the box/packaging/product look slightly off?' Or 'I thought this product was supposed to have a factory seal?' (If you have suspicions, check unboxing videos, reviews, or post a picture to social media)

'Is there any way to verify the authenticity?' (For CPUs and GPUs its usually very hard for them to hide it's a fake once you've installed it and run monitoring tools or benchmarks)

---

If you have common sense you can avoid most counterfeit items and straight up fraud.

However you still can run into a headache with open box items at retailers like Best Buy, who aren't trained well enough to check products before reselling them. People try to swap the IHS between an i9 and lower end CPU, and then return the 'i9', only for best buy to resell it to someone thinking they got a deal on an open box i9. This kind of fraud is why they are supposed to ask for your license with big returns, so they can traceback the fraudulent return when the open box buyer finds out they and Best Buy were duped.

[u/easysjwsniper]

Intel only issue.

AMD CPUs are too weak so nobody wants to scam them.

[u/premell]

I don't quite understand how this works. I mean the cpu doesn't work right so the user will for sure notice so why even bother faking it. Why not just not send the cpu, give a dead cpu or smth. Why bother trying to fake the appearance