Why it matters: Remember those EVGA RTX 3000 cards that were stolen from a truck on the way to California back in October? It seems some of them have finally surfaced in an unlikely location: around 8,000 miles away, in Vietnam.
On October 29, 2021, EVGA Product Manager Jacob Freeman revealed that a shipment of EVGA GeForce RTX 3000-series cards had been hijacked while en route from San Francisco to EVGA’s Southern California distribution center.
Freeman said the stolen cards’ values started at $329.99— likely the RTX 3060—and went all the way up to $1959.99—the RTX 3090. Those are the MSRPs, so their actual selling prices, and value, would have been a lot higher.
EVGA warned people to be on the lookout for any of the cards on auction sites such as eBay. We haven’t heard much about them since the heist took place, but it’s now been reported that a Vietnamese retailer, NCPC, was selling some of the items in question.
A user who bought two RTX 3080 Ti cards, which came with a one-month warranty, verified the serial codes for any potential future claims and discovered, via the EVGA website, that they were from the stolen batch.
The retailer replied to the customer in a letter confirming that they would refund the cards’ cost and return them to the supplier who provided the stolen items. NCPC said it was also a victim in the incident as it was unaware the cards had been stolen, though not checking the serial numbers first is a surprise, especially as the cards appear to have been bought for less than the usual selling price.
It’s suspected that the stolen cards were purchased from sources in China by the supplier. EVGA is likely investigating the reports, and it could make an official announcement soon.
https://www.techspot.com/news/92919-evga-rtx-3000-cards-stolen-october-california-truck.html
