Retailer ships RTX 5090 with missing GPU and memory chips to customer — defaced GPU took over a year to ship

(Image credit: Reddit - u/Nice-Screen-4193)

Another day, and another victim has been scammed out of an RTX 5090, this time from Amazon in France. Nice-Screen-4193 on the PCMasterRace subreddit shared their story of how they ordered an MSI RTX 5090 directly from Amazon, only to receive a non-functioning RTX 5090 with a missing GPU core and memory modules.

The Redditor revealed that they ordered an MSI RTX 5090 graphics card directly from Amazon in France in July 2024. The graphics card came directly from Amazon and was not listed under a third-party seller.

After waiting over a year, they finally received the RTX 5090 they ordered. The box was allegedly perfectly sealed with no signs of tampering. However, once the GPU was inspected, the redditor discovered the four screws surrounding the GPU core had been stripped. Additionally, the gold finger on the bottom allegedly appeared dull and used, suggesting to them that the GPU had been used and not new.

Received a “new” MSI 5090 from Amazon FR — GPU die and memory were completely removed from r/pcmasterrace

The Redditors' demise reveals that even official GPU listings on Amazon are not safe from thieves and scammers. The RTX 5090 inventory was likely hijacked in transit before reaching Amazon's warehouses, which would leave Amazon with virtually no means to determine whether its GPU inventory has been compromised or not. This is especially the case if the boxes appear untampered, as was the case with this latest report.

Thanks to sky-high demand caused by the AI boom, Nvidia's flagship GPUs over the past three generations have been at the forefront of non-stop attacks from scammers, thieves, and scalpers trying to capitalize on the high prices that Nvidia's flagship GPUs command. We've seen everything from RTX 4090 inventory being sold with RTX 3090s inside, to RTX 5090 packages being filled with macaroni, rice, and an obsolete GPU tucked in.

Another GPU scam that has become popular among scammers involves removing the GPU core and memory entirely from retail graphics cards. By doing this, the scammers can flip the GPU core and memory modules for a profit or retrofit another graphics card with the stolen components. The latter has become popular in China, where RTX 5090 dies and GDDR7 memory modules are being transplanted onto slimmer blower-style graphics cards compatible with AI servers.

Not all of these Frankenstined RTX 5090s are using stolen components, but at least some of them likely are.

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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

11 Comments Comment from the forums

KyaraM

Another example for why you should never buy anything this expensive via Amazon, especially not via Marketplace and especially not PC hardware... always buy from computer retailers, be they inline or local.

A correction, though, the customer wasn't scammed out of a 5090, but out of his money. He didn't use the 5090 as payment after all.
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USAFRet

KyaraM said:
Another example for why you should never buy anything this expensive via Amazon, especially not via Marketplace and especially not PC hardware... always buy from computer retailers, be they inline or local.
"Sold and Shipped by Amazon" is fine.
Direct route to return/refund.

Marketplace? Not a chance.
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Notton

IDK about Amazon France, but over on this side of the pond, Amazon customer service is usually pretty good when it comes to lost or damaged products that shipped directly from Amazon. The catch is, you have to word it in a certain way, like "can I get a replacement", or "I would like a refund", and not "could you please solve this problem for me?"
The latter results in unnecessary back and forth before they resolve the issue.
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KyaraM

USAFRet said:
"Sold and Shipped by Amazon" is fine.
Direct route to return/refund.

Marketplace? Not a chance.
This isn't the first time Amazon had issues with stuff like this. Especially in the PC hardware segment. Yes, they are great with returns and refunds, but the customer still has the frustration and work of the return etc. I have no issues if a product is defective because that can happen. But an outright scam like this? That just can't be allowed to happen, especially not multiple times like apparently in France.
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acadia11

Something doesn’t sound right … waited a year to get the GpU? This seems suspect all around?
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dwd999

Part of the problem is that Amazon only checks boxes by weight. If the box weighs what its supposed to weigh, they don't care about what's inside. I got scammed out of a Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 PWM Sx2-PP set of 2 fans that way which was only $77 so there's no minimum to some scams. Bought from and shipped by Amazon from their warehouse in Tennessee. The scammers nowadays are smart enough to shrink wrap the boxes so that no one bothers to look inside and they're clearly skilled enough to steal what they want and reassemble the product so that no one would suspect its fraud. If the weight's right it goes back into inventory.
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christopher.andrew.carr

"The Redditors' demise reveals ..."

The Redditor died from shock?
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wr3zzz

The correct explanation is not "all" GPU prices are inflated, they are but it's not the reason for GPU/VRAM stripping thefts. The reason is that Nvidia charges 3x more for their "professional" grade cards on consumer grade dies. That huge premium creates a addressable market for custom board makers stripping retail consumer products to refit the dies into "professional" form factors. That black market did not exist before because the arbitrage did not justify the capital investments for the retrofit.

This is what happens when there is an effective monopoly where legal market has failed so black market flourishes.
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fiyz

I mean... Consumer protection laws exist because corporations can't be trusted, and yet, we have people whose sole identity is defined not by values, morals, or community, but by corporate branding... Like cattle who gleefully brand themselves, like true Maverick's. I ended my prime membership when I heard about the warehouse workers who were forced to work in the middle of a tornado and ended up losing their lives. There are other options. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon low key knows all about the sellers behavior but keep them on the platform anyways. Heck, Amazon owns 70% of the internet, (maybe I'm exaggerating, but the stastics are shocking)
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tresnugget

How did they order a GPU that came out a little over 6 months ago, a full year ago? The 5090 was announced in January and was officially released January 30th. Already holes in the story that I'm not sure Tom's Hardware of all people didn't question.

Edit: NVM they ordered it a month ago and said "what felt like a year" in the actual Reddit post
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