Patrons of Nvidia’s RTX 4090 flagship GPU have been scammed up to now, and one other sufferer of a graphics card sting has simply been flagged up.

Hong Kong-based HKEPC studies (hat tip to VideoCardz) {that a} reader of the location bought a second-hand RTX 4090 at a preferred on-line market (Carousell). The client discovered that the graphics card didn’t work – no followers spun up, and it seemed to be useless when put in of their PC.

Upon investigation, it was found that the graphics card was lacking a fairly essential element – the GPU chip itself (oh, and a few VRAM modules too).

The client was subsequently unable to contact the vendor, and reported the matter to the police, however the authorities couldn’t do something to hint the scammer (at the very least from what we will inform given the article translation, which is patchy).

The particular person reportedly paid 13,000 Hong Kong {Dollars} for the RTX 4090 which equates to round $1,700 within the US (or £1,300, AU$2,500).

At any fee, the purpose is obvious: If an RTX 4090 being provided second-hand appears that it might be a bit too good to be true, it would certainly not be true (or an precise working graphics card).

Evaluation: A matter of belief

The ethical of the story right here is basically the plain recommendation that you need to solely purchase from a trusted vendor. Should you’re going to focus on a used GPU discount, ideally get it from a recognized retailer, or at the very least an public sale vendor who has loads of suggestions and a very good repute.

Moreover, there are occasions when it’s greatest to keep away from the second-hand market totally, for a interval, corresponding to when the crypto-mining bubble burst again in 2022.

The difficulty with super-expensive graphics playing cards just like the Nvidia RTX 4090 is that they’re apparent juicy targets for scammers, seeing as their value tags are so colossal, even second-hand.

Recall the incident from late in 2022 the place an RTX 4090 purchaser picked up a used card – this time within the US, from a third-party market vendor on Newegg – which turned out to be only a 4090 field with lumps of metallic in it (even worse than having a ghost of a graphics card).

On this case, the client did get their a reimbursement apparently, however nonetheless, the recommendation ‘caveat emptor’ (‘let the client beware’) most positively applies in terms of high-end graphics playing cards. Significantly when as is the case now, the RTX 4090 has been in a lot demand (as a result of state of affairs with it being banned in China, and the purported launch of a brand new variant to get spherical these restrictions).

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