New fear dropped: Amazon scammer seems to have delidded an $889 AMD chip, transplanted it on old Intel chip, and got it through return inspection

I’ve never been stung by Amazon, but I’ve heard enough stories for it to be a worry. Amazon can take returns and list them again as new products if they pass inspection, which can open the door for scammers if something slips through inspection. And it’s tales of this happening with expensive components that really give me the heebie jeebies, such as what seems to have happened to one Redditor with the incredibly expensive AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2.

The picture they share shows what are supposed to be two Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 chips, but they look different. The pin layout on the underside is different, and on the top there is a distinct lack of caps jutting out from under the integrated heat spreader (IHS).

Those familiar with AMD chips will know that that lack of capacitors on top is a giveaway that it’s not, in fact, a new Ryzen chip under the IHS—those caps, or surface-mount device (SMD) components, are never bundled in the middle and never on the underside. Another giveaway, therefore, is that the underside of the fake chip features all that SMD gubbins bundled in the centre, which is a feature of Intel chips, not AMD ones.

What has most likely happened here, just as the top Reddit comment says, is someone has probably delidded a Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 and stuck an old Intel CPU under the Ryzen IHS. The smudging/wearing of the text on top of the fake chip probably occurred during the delidding process.

For someone who doesn’t know a lot about CPUs and components, this might have been difficult to spot in part because for quite some time now Intel chips have been rectangular rather than square. Someone giving a chip a quick glance without knowledge of the pin and cap situation might just see the naming, the eight IHS jut-outs, and the square shape, and assume it’s good to go.

One would hope that inspections would usually catch something like this, though, given the differences are far from subtle if you know anything about AMD and Intel chips.

We’ve seen likely Amazon return scams like this before, such as for memory. This particular one with the fake Ryzen chip is no small deal given how expensive the 9950X3D2 is. It’s currently retailing for $889 at Amazon. I’d be unhappy with having this happen to any processor I bought, but especially one that’s pushing $1,000. Hopefully Amazon sorts it out for the Redditor.