News Fake Ryzen 7 9800X3D bought from Amazon was actually an old AMD FX chip disguised by IHS sticker

[Mark_166]

Yet I find that hard to believe. What series of events would lead to Amazon itself, knowingly or unknowingly, packaging, selling, and shipping an FX chip disguised as a high-end Ryzen? My guess is that he bought it from a third-party seller but was unaware that he did. Amazon has a nasty habit of setting a third-party seller as the first and primary option when you open a product page, even when they themselves also sell and ship the item. I learned of this website (I'm not affiliated with it) that allows you to search specifically and only for products sold and shipped directly by Amazon.com, to avoid potentially being swindled by a third-party seller, or for any other reason.

Although now that I think about it, I suppose it could have happened by Amazon accepting a returned 9800X3D and not doing due diligence to ensure the returned item was legitimate. But it seems weird for them to sell a returned item as new and not open-box.

It's quite simple. Amazon mixes inventories. This means that within their warehouses they mix "shipped and sold by Amazon.com" products with the same products provided by third parties. They've been doing this for years now and it's caused countless issues like this. It's public knowledge that they've been doing this, too. I got burned by this recently. I bought a collectors box of Magic the Gathering Lord of the Rings cards for $450 (full retail) shipped from and sold by Amazon. It came shrink wrapped. I opened it and all the packs were opened and replaced with fake Pokemon cards.

 

[Geo Leaf]

I recently bought a Ryzen 9 9950x through amazon as "like new". It was a Ryzen 9 5950X. I guess a non-technical person can get fooled by this

 

[passivecool]

Something tells me this was not sold and shipped by Amazon.

@Alvar, Aris presented the invoice and a lot of footage. It's Amazon.de business, I confirm, that is what the invoices look like. Aris is widely considered a commendable source of detailed tech reviews, with a long track record of serious, detailed reporting (see article above). I generally respect your opinions greatly and ask therefore how you underpin your statement, which feels like an acquisition to me, which I would see to be unfounded and therefore infamous. Maybe I just understood it.

Facts and consideration are SO OUT OF STYLE, I know, but I still want to put a stake in the ground where I can.

@Pegaroo Amazon is a platform. AND a fulfillment partner for 3p transactions AND a direct retailer B2C / B2B, AND a logistics company. Each of these roles comes with a different set of legal obligations in each country of operation. Going vertical does allow AZ a lot of wiggle room. BUT:

In this case, AZ has to eat the inevitable loss. The reputation damage is the poisoned cherry on top, so, logically, not in AZ's interest. The question will be: who did the bad deed? A swap could have happened anywhere from Taipai to Augsburg. For the sake of argument, I would assume that the AZ auto-picking AGV picked the box from the bin and no person actually looked at it.

Not that I like AZ (although I buy there, too, lazy me)

A relative of mine is a retailer and can tell a few horror stories of hardware he sent out in mint condition which was then returned, stripped of parts, and thanks to the payment method he went out double minus.

The world's got a hole, and it has bled out so much decency.

 

[Quirkz]

"Aris says that this 9800X3D was bought new, not used or returned, from Amazon direct, rather than a third-party seller. The sealed packaging seemed genuine to him."

Gamers nexus put out a video a couple weeks back with a similar problem with a power supply.

It's getting more and more common. So easy for storefronts to pump fake product *especially when amazon just dumps them all in the same bin*.

Amazon didn't supply this chip, it was some unidentified 3rd party that shipped these to amazon, so that other storefronts (or amazon themselves) get blamed. Meanwhile, their customers recieve the *correct* CPU supplied by amazon or other marketplaces.

It's like amazon has deliberately constructed a storefront to allow fraud to hide in the open.

 

[Quirkz]

I recently bought a Ryzen 9 9950x through amazon as "like new". It was a Ryzen 9 5950X. I guess a non-technical person can get fooled by this

Would fail when they tried to use it on the non-compatible AM5 socket, possible even damaging the motherboard!

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

"Aris says that this 9800X3D was bought new, not used or returned, from Amazon direct, rather than a third-party seller. The sealed packaging seemed genuine to him."

The thing is though the invoice showed he paid €466.39. Looking up the ASIN listed on the invoice on Amazon.de shows the sold by Amazon listing is currently €597.14, with 3 Camels showing the lowest price that Amazon had it listed for is €554 on February 27, 2025, both much higher than the price he paid.

So I'm going to stand by my statement that this was not a listing sold and shipped by Amazon unless I see the order details page where it says "Sold by: Amazon.de".

Perhaps Mark Tyson could obtain the order details from him and verify his story.