Facepalm: Graphics card scams on Amazon are far from new, but one customer has encountered what appears to be a new method of trying to trick victims – one that some people could fall for. It involves sending a cheap "present" to the buyer and a promise that the GPU is on its way. The scammer also sends a pamphlet that supposedly explains the process and includes a fake Amazon email to cancel the order.
Reddit user BransonArsen wrote that they bought an MSI Gaming RTX 5080 16G SUPRIM Liquid SOC edition from Amazon for nearly $1,400. They later explained that the seller was a third party with a Chinese name, which even they admit was a warning sign. The lower-case "msi" in the product description is a bit of a giveaway, too.
Those suspicions proved warranted when a delivery arrived at BransonArsen's door a few days later. While we've seen many GPU scams involving something other than the graphics card being sent in the original packaging, including putty, rice, and older cards in diguise, it wasn't even an RTX 5080 box that turned up.
What arrived at the door was a plain Amazon box, inside of which was a cheap but correctly packaged vacuum mug.
Rather than just sending something totally different, this was all part of the scam. The box also included a pamphlet claiming the mug was a "complimentary gift." The graphics card would be arriving separately, in about seven working days, because Amazon "collects orders and places a bulk order with this seller every Monday," making the delivery longer but helping keep the price lower – this particular card is usually $2,000.
The leaflet, which appears to contain AI-generated images, adds that if the buyer wants a tracking number or has any questions, they can email the definitely-not-fake [email protected] customer service address. It also advises anyone wishing to cancel their order and receive a full refund to contact this address – but don't worry, they can keep the mug.
Unfortunately, that mug might end up costing $1,400. It seems the idea here is for the victim to repeatedly email the fake address while the scammers keep stringing them along until the return window expires, leaving them with a very expensive piece of crap as a reminder to be wary of suspicious Amazon sellers.
