Newegg accidentally ships counterfeit Core i7 920 processors

Matt Jancaitis (Snarkasm) It was revealed that a batch of Intel Core i7 920 CPUs shipped to NewEgg were actually counterfeits.

March 5, 2010 9:16 PM ET in News,


UPDATE: Newegg has clarified the distributor issue with the counterfeits, clearing D&H Distributing.

[H]ardOCP is reporting a bad shipment from a distributor has led Newegg to ship out up to 300 counterfeit Intel Core i7 920 processors to customers. At first glance, things look normal, but upon inspecting the contents, people expecting a shiny new set of 8 hyperthreaded cores received naught but a blank instruction booklet, a cardboard and foam version of the stock heatsink, and an IHS stamped believably as an i7-920 series – attached to what looks to be a piece of cardboard, complete with fake electronics banks on the bottom of the chip.

Another source is telling us that 300 counterfeit processors were purchased by Newegg from D&H Distributing and that the fakes were delivered last week in a shipment totaling 2000 pieces. It was also communicated to me that Newegg has now “discovered” all 300 counterfeit processors.

All recent purchasers of a 920 from Newegg are recommended to check their hardware and notify them if they’ve received one of the counterfeit versions. For its part, Newegg has shipped proper replacements quickly, and both Newegg and Intel are working to investigate how (allegedly) D&H Distributing obtained the fake processors to ship for sale.

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35 Comments

  1. 6 Mar '10, 2:32 am Jengo

    so so so dissapointed with newegg... That is not what customers want to hear.. that they are confusing counterfeit processors with real ones... That was one of the reasons i would ever buy anything from then in the first place, because i felt i could never get scammed....

  2. 6 Mar '10, 2:40 am pigflipper
    Quoting Jengo

    so so so dissapointed with newegg... That is not what customers want to hear.. that they are confusing counterfeit processors with real ones... That was one of the reasons i would ever buy anything from then in the first place, because i felt i could never get scammed....

    So its a scam when you (the retailer) buy from a whole sale source and then ship the items to customers and when an error does occur, you immediately contact your customers and offer to ship them the proper part at a loss to you?

    Yeah, real brilliant scam there.

  3. 6 Mar '10, 2:46 am BobbyDigi

    I see it, It makes perfect sense:

    1. Ship counterfeit processors
    2. Replace them with real ones
    3. ???
    4. Profit
    5. Still be Newegg.com and make millions of dollars.

    -Bobby

  4. 6 Mar '10, 4:54 am Gargoyle

    I wonder how well the cardboard ones overclock.

  5. 6 Mar '10, 5:51 am clifford_cooley

    I think they should keep their counterfeit processor for their troubles.
    Who knows they might could underclock that one.

  6. 6 Mar '10, 6:05 am RWB
    Quoting Jengo

    so so so dissapointed with newegg... That is not what customers want to hear.. that they are confusing counterfeit processors with real ones... That was one of the reasons i would ever buy anything from then in the first place, because i felt i could never get scammed....

    I really hope you're not serious or that I misunderstood your post as trolling or whatever shinangigans you guys do these days

    For its part, Newegg has shipped proper replacements quickly, and both Newegg and Intel are working to investigate how D&H Distributing obtained the fake processors to ship for sale.
  7. 6 Mar '10, 6:29 am Jengo
    Quoting pigflipper

    So its a scam when you (the retailer) buy from a whole sale source and then ship the items to customers and when an error does occur, you immediately contact your customers and offer to ship them the proper part at a loss to you?

    Yeah, real brilliant scam there.

    I never said that it(newegg) is a scam, i simply said that it is incredible to me how it wasn't caught sooner, if there was someone overseeing the products that get shipped out i dont see how an error could have occurred. You wouldnt expect to recieve a counterfeit product (i.e. to get scammed as its referred to around here). I don't think newegg as a whole company is a scam, i just think someone along the lines got scammed and someone else is responsible, in this case newegg, whether it was intentional or not.

  8. 6 Mar '10, 6:35 am mas0n

    Considering the sales volume Newegg processes, catching the counterfeits this quickly is quite good. It's not like they open your sealed product box and test parts.

    This is obviously unfortunate but good on Newegg for their handling of the situation.

  9. 6 Mar '10, 7:43 am pigflipper
    Quoting Jengo

    I never said that it(newegg) is a scam, i simply said that it is incredible to me how it wasn't caught sooner, if there was someone overseeing the products that get shipped out i dont see how an error could have occurred. You wouldnt expect to recieve a counterfeit product (i.e. to get scammed as its referred to around here). I don't think newegg as a whole company is a scam, i just think someone along the lines got scammed and someone else is responsible, in this case newegg, whether it was intentional or not.

    No, you said it was a scam, go re-read your original post.

  10. 6 Mar '10, 1:16 pm Snarkasm

    Jengo, what are they supposed to do - open every piece of hardware that goes through their warehouse? If you received an opened processor from Newegg, would you let that stand, or would you get a replacement unopened part?

    What a ridiculous statement. Newegg has done everything right except for purchasing something from their distributor that they never had a chance to know was fraudulent.

  11. 6 Mar '10, 3:26 pm Butters

    This is an example of how Company's should deal with this type of problem. Yeah, 15% of the counterfeits were shipped, but when you take in to consideration the volume of shipments, the minimum human involvement, the speed they shipped out the replacement part. It was all first class.

  12. 6 Mar '10, 4:00 pm Gargoyle

    Wouldn't the box feel kind of light?

  13. 6 Mar '10, 5:21 pm NiGHTS

    That's what I thought, too, but there's a lot of variables that would prevent that from catching the problem. (did a human being package it, if software packaged it, are the robots set to take into account accurate weight, does the shipping software detect anomalies in package weight, etc.)

  14. 6 Mar '10, 5:21 pm Komete

    I could see this easily happening. It's not new egg's fault, it's the vender they bought the processors from. Scams happen. It could have been a vender employee who did it. Maybe he is selling the real cpu's as OEM cpu's on ebay.

  15. 6 Mar '10, 5:33 pm clifford_cooley

    I feel both companies are making things right so there is no point in wondering where someone may have gone wrong in not detecting the counterfeits. The only way, would have been to open the boxes as Snarkasm suggested. Besides why question such a thing, has Intel ever shipped counterfeits before?

    As far as weight goes, the real thing doesn't weigh much either. You probably could only tell the difference if you was holding both in your hands. I know for a fact that lighter objects don't feel as heavy as they actually are, If I had previously been moving something very heavy. Processors are not the only thing that Newegg ships.

  16. 6 Mar '10, 5:36 pm ben

    I don't know if you've worked in a large warehouse but big companies like newegg have trucks with product arriving every day. They can't inspect every product that arrives, they would never get their trucks unloaded. I think newegg is handling this situation well. They have responded to the situation and are offering replacements or full refunds to all affected. What more can you want?

  17. 6 Mar '10, 7:31 pm Cliff_Forster

    What more can you want??

    I don't know, maybe the product I ordered the first time without the extra hassle??

  18. 6 Mar '10, 9:03 pm Snarkasm

    Oh, Cliff - hush your mouth. You know Newegg is doing the right thing, now you're just stirring the pot for fun's sake.

  19. 6 Mar '10, 9:20 pm NiGHTS
    Quoting ben

    I don't know if you've worked in a large warehouse but big companies like newegg have trucks with product arriving every day. They can't inspect every product that arrives, they would never get their trucks unloaded. I think newegg is handling this situation well. They have responded to the situation and are offering replacements or full refunds to all affected. What more can you want?

    Bingo, even warehouses with less activity don't have the time/manpower to sift through every single order. It's a waste of productivity and money.

  20. 6 Mar '10, 10:03 pm Jengo
    Quoting pigflipper

    No, you said it was a scam, go re-read your original post.

    I did re-read my post, several times at that.. i still dont understand why you are making a big deal about this. But okay, if it makes you feel better in some strange way think whatever you want. But my opinion is my opinion, i dont give a rats ass if you disagree with me.

  21. 6 Mar '10, 11:51 pm Jengo
    Quoting Snarkasm

    Jengo, what are they supposed to do - open every piece of hardware that goes through their warehouse? If you received an opened processor from Newegg, would you let that stand, or would you get a replacement unopened part?

    What a ridiculous statement. Newegg has done everything right except for purchasing something from their distributor that they never had a chance to know was fraudulent.

    No, you dont have to open every box, but if the box says INLEL that should tell you something... You guys act like im out for neweggs throat, but im not, i am probably still going to keep buying from them, all im saying is that this is disappointing and it should have never happened. 300 processors is not that much, that is what? 2,3, maybe 4 pallets of freight? I used to throw and inspect over 20 pallets of roofing material a day at my old job, you are telling me some lame-ass Warehouse worker cant inspect a couple of pallets of intel processors that just sit there in a warehouse before they get sent out to make sure they are the real thing before they get shipped? RIDICULOUS, any old warehouse worker will tell you that there is always a warehouse foreman that oversees the products coming in and the products going out, if something gets sent out of that warehouse that wasnt supposed to or if they accept a shipment of something they werent supposed to (including damaged or fraudulent goods) then the responsibility comes back on the foreman, plain and simple. And who would that foreman work for? Newegg. And if it was a forman at D&H instead, that did it, well then they are the ones that need to be held responsible.

    Dont get mad at me that newegg ruined a little bit of their rep with that. I did work in a warehouse, and i DO know how they work.

  22. 7 Mar '10, 12:40 am Snarkasm

    Inlel was a 'shop done by an editor (I do not know which - it was not in place when I wrote the blurb). If you follow through to the [H]ardOCP source, you'll see the box says Intel, not Inlel - and God knows Newegg would have noticed if their actual site said Inlel...

    Again, they're not going to open the box to verify the correct part is inside - to the entire world, upon normal inspection, that looks like a proper i7 920 box. (Socket is misspelled, but that's not exactly a key determinant.) It's pretty hard to blame Newegg for this, really.

  23. 7 Mar '10, 12:48 am Jengo

    okay okay, maybe im being a little hard on them, if you really cant tell, then you really cant tell i guess...

    but lol @ sochet

  24. 7 Mar '10, 12:50 am Snarkasm

    I used to be a big fan of sochet 939, myself, but sochet 1366 is pretty good.

  25. 7 Mar '10, 1:44 am mirage

    I would sue them. They need to pay and someone needs to be fired for wasting my precious dollars and time. I want my processor right now, right away. And I want two of them now, one of them free so that they don't do this horrible, terrible mistake ever again.

  26. 7 Mar '10, 6:01 am GHoosdum
    Quoting Snarkasm

    I used to be a big fan of sochet 939, myself, but sochet 1366 is pretty good.

    I'mma let you finish, but Sochet A was one of the best Sochets of all time.

  27. 7 Mar '10, 8:45 am PsyHawk

    Its great that NewEgg is taking care of it as they are.

    However, the story of "demo boxes" is one thing I am not buying. You don't need to have content in a "demo box" - you just need the box. Shipping "demo boxes" with junk in them rather than empty boxes would cost more as well.

    Somewhere along the line, someone or some group gave it a really good effort to counterfeit the box and contents.

    I keep seeing multiple versions of the contents.

    The fake fan has been reported as either foam,
    plastic or clay.

    The fake processor has been reported as a piece if metal or printed cardboard.

    The manual so far seems to be consistent - some pages stapled together.

    I am sure that the authorities are looking further into it.

    I wouldn't doubt that the REAL cpus are being sold on ebay now (There are a bunch out there now).

  28. 7 Mar '10, 9:05 am PsyHawk

    Another reason I don't buy the whole "demo box" story is simply this:

    If you look at the fake packages and what they contained, it seems the weight would be really close to those of the real packages.

    Mix these into the real ones and you're going to be fooling people along the supply chain.

    It just depends on how inspections were performed. A quick glance at a package or few. The weight of the pallets. Off they go!

    Then again as they are packaged and weighed for shipping. Off they go.

    Its just too much effort for a "demo box" when contents are not needed.

  29. 7 Mar '10, 11:00 am Tim

    Why would someone even go to the trouble to make a fake cardboard processor? Are these the boxes with plastic windows so you can look in and see the actual CPU?

  30. 7 Mar '10, 5:38 pm PsyHawk

    Some forums say cardboard - the movie/clips I have seen show metal fake processors.

    UP TO $86,697 ($288.99 * 300) is a good reason. On ebay some of these processors are going for close to the "IN STORE" price.

    On another forum (www.hardocp.com ?), it has already been suggested that this is probably originating from someplace up the line where they can do this cheaply (somewhere in Asia?)

    Organized crime is suspected as well based on some postings elsewhere.

  31. 8 Mar '10, 1:04 am Serp

    Icrontic makes the news

    http://www.techeye.net/business/comp...el-cpu-reports

  32. 8 Mar '10, 1:46 am clifford_cooley

    Looks as if D&H wanted the truth covered up. Good job Icrontic!!

  33. 8 Mar '10, 3:53 am Cliff_Forster

    How petty, they want you to apologize for no less than thirty days.

    Well, I apologize, I apologize that some poor knucklehead purchased a fake Intel CPU when he could have just done what us cool kids do and buy a Phenom II. Sorry about that...... I mean, we can't be expected to save everyone from their own foolishness now can we?

  34. 8 Mar '10, 4:31 am Jengo
    Quoting Cliff_Forster

    How petty, they want you to apologize for no less than thirty days.

    Well, I apologize, I apologize that some poor knucklehead purchased a fake Intel CPU when he could have just done what us cool kids do and buy a Phenom II. Sorry about that...... I mean, we can't be expected to save everyone from their own foolishness now can we?

    lol!

  35. 8 Mar '10, 2:02 pm AlexDeGruven

    lol @ the C&D letter. A little butt-hurt about getting busted, eh?

    Nobody is even saying that D&H was responsible for the fakes, just that they were the distributor NewEgg received the fakes from.

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