Well, the used GPU markets have turned out to be the next place of opportunity for scammers, and this time an incident has emerged involving NVIDIA's RTX 4090. NVIDIA's RTX 4090 Returned To The Seller, But It Had Components Missing; Likely Ending Up Somewhere In China Given the massive demand in the market for current-gen GPUs, consumers have resorted to the second-hand market on platforms like eBay and Craigslist, but with that, new scams have emerged online. According to a post by the Redditor piscian19, he sold off an NVIDIA RTX 4090 to what seemed like a "big" business in California with 30K feedback, and that made him wonder why the buyer would pay the retail price for his RTX 4090. So, just for safety, the seller took a "ton of pictures" of the GPU before selling it off and also took out insurance with the order. Interestingly, this might be one of the best decisions he made. So, as soon as the NVIDIA RTX 4090 was sold, the buyer initiated a return process on the same day with a "no video" note, which was indeed shady, given that the seller sent off the unit in "pristine" condition. Interestingly, when we received the GPU back, not only did it have damage marks all over the chassis, but the mounting bracket was bent out, which meant that the buyer opened up the GPU as soon as he received it. So, he reported the problem to eBay and credited it to his insurance, and he did get a refund. Image Credits: Reddit Out of curiosity, the seller opened up the GPU and realized that it had no VRAM chips or GPU silicon since the buyer had apparently stripped them out. This made the situation a whole lot more complicated, especially since the buyer had over 30K feedback and seemed like a legit party. Redditors in the comment section claimed that the eBay account might have been hacked, but we are still not aware of why this actually happened. As to what we assume, these components would likely end up in China, where they'll be repackaged either into an OEM model or maybe those variants that come with higher VRAM capacities for AI workloads. This incident tells us how "scammy" the second-hand GPU markets have become, and with this, consumers must proceed with caution to ensure that they don't become a victim. Deal of the Day