Police authorities in China recently raided an illicit operation responsible for rebadging and refurbishing second-hand or used GPUs, and then reselling them on the market as brand new units. A total of 22 individuals connected to the operation were arrested.
The operation occurred in the district of Bincheng, nestled within the Chinese city of Binzhou. Chinese authorities raided a warehouse, where it is reported that they found numerous cryptomining enclosures, stripped of their GPUs. As explained before, their plans were simple: give each weathered GPU a bit of a touch-up and cleaning, then repack them in packaging that makes them look brand spanking new.
These scammers also go to considerable lengths to mask the age and wear of each GPU. As we reported earlier in the year, one such method that they employ is by painting over the graphics modules of the card. These modules basically yellowed from excess heat, brought about by prolonged use.
This GPU hustle has clearly been lucrative to the scammers, but even in the short-term, their actions very quickly saw affected buyers complaining about their fake cards and heavily worn-out graphics cards, the majority of which were clearly used for mining. Not only that, but the fake cards were also deliberately mislabelled, all in order to deceive the buyers.
As we mentioned in the past, some cryptominers that bought the graphics cards in bulk during the cryptomining resurgence may come clean and tell you that they’ve used the GPU for said purpose. However, what they would be more reluctant to share is just how long exactly they’ve used it.
Of the 22 people arrested, only seven of them were reportedly detained and faced criminal charges. Further, the total value of the counterfeit GPUs is estimated to be in excess of US$2 million (~RM9.12 million).
(Source: ITHome via Videocardz)
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