- Buyers Run into RAM Scams Due to Price of High-End Kits
- There have been reported cases of DDR5 RAM being exchanged for inferior products.
- These scenarios could be scammers gaming the returns system, but whatever the case, there is one crucial step you can take to protect yourself.
With the price of RAM rising so fast it’s dizzying, in an unsurprising turn of events, scammers are trying to take advantage of the new and frankly ridiculous premiums imposed on system memory.
Guru of 3D pointed out an incident where someone allegedly purchased Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM units on Amazon, only to discover that the memory that arrived was DDR4 (which is significantly slower and cheaper).
And last week, VideoCardz reported a similar (but worse) scenario in which an Amazon RAM buyer in Spain discovered that an Adata XPG DDR5 kit actually contained (positively old) DDR or DDR2 system memory.
In the first case, this was a more sophisticated fraud case where the modules had been replaced with older RAM, although in the latest incident, the fraudster had simply pasted a fake sticker saying DDR5 RAM on the very old memory cards.
It is not yet clear what the outcome was in the second case, but in the first, where the DDR4 modules were changed, Amazon took replacement measures (as the refund did not do much good, as the price of the product had skyrocketed again since the purchase).
Please note that these were products purchased directly from Amazon (and shipped by the retailer), not a third-party seller. So why are they fake? What usually happens in these cases is that the scammer buys the genuine product from Amazon and files a return, exchanges the fake RAM, and keeps the real devices.
Amazon should pick it up, of course, but in these cases, the retailer may have somehow missed the return or not properly verified it; therefore, it was sold again to some unlucky person, or that is the best theory.
How can you avoid being scammed like this?
I hope Amazon resolves any incidents like this, but obviously you want to avoid being a victim in the first place, if possible, and make sure you have solid evidence of a scam to rely on if you have any trouble bringing your case to the retailer (be it Amazon or any other outlet).
Therefore, to ensure that you are not a victim, do not purchase high-value technology products such as RAM or graphics cards (which are also common targets of these types of bites) from a third-party seller on Amazon (or anywhere else). When you spend a lot of money, it’s just not worth the risk.
However, as we have seen, even if you buy a product sold and shipped by Amazon, things can still go wrong. That’s why it’s very important to do one thing with high-value items, like DDR5 kits or GPUs, and that is to record the unboxing of them. It may seem far-fetched, but if you have video evidence, it’s obviously strong proof of what happened with the purchase.
So when you receive an item, take out your phone and video the package (including the labels on top), then keep it recording as you open the box, take out the product, and remove your purchase from its own box. This way, if there is a weight of rock or metal in the box (which has happened with GPUs), or fake RAM with a poorly affixed DDR5 label, you will have an actual recording of this coming out of the shipped box (showing the relevant labels with the product and serial numbers on the hardware itself). This way, if you have any problems with complaints or return procedures, you have this video to back you up.
Adata has subsequently issued some advice on how to see if memory modules are actually manufactured by the company, which is helpful for checking anything you consider suspicious, but won’t help you avoid a scam like this in the first place.
These scams certainly suggest that Amazon needs to beef up its oversight of returns to ensure nefarious buyers don’t trade genuine products for counterfeits. Either that, or it’s possible that someone else is swapping the real products for a counterfeit at some other point in the retail or supply chain, although that seems a less likely prospect.
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