Overview

• A buyer who ordered an MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Ventus 3X from Amazon France discovered the card nonfunctional, with its GPU die and GDDR7 memory modules stripped from the PCB.
• The absence of a tamper seal and dull PCIe contacts alerted the customer to open the unit, exposing only solder pads where the core and memory once sat.
• Security experts say the tampering likely occurred during transit to Amazon’s fulfillment centers, as intact external packaging concealed the fraud.
• Scammers motivated by strong AI-related demand in China remove GPU cores and VRAM chips for resale or installation on custom PCBs in specialized labs.
• The case underscores critical gaps in e-commerce platform oversight and supply chain security that leave even direct retailer shipments vulnerable.