Newegg Ships Fake Intel i7 CPUs, Blames IPEX

ZDnet.com is reporting that famed computer component distributor Newegg may have been duped into shipping fake Intel Core i7 Processors to its customers.

Newegg is currently conducting a thorough investigation surrounding recent shipments of questionable Intel Core i7-920 CPUs purchased from Newegg.com.

Initially, the investigation pointed to possible “demo units” that were shipped by accident, however there were some disturbing discoveries that made this quite unlikely.

First, there was an obvious typo on the sticker that identified what CPU was in the sealed box.  The word “Socket” was misspelled as “Sochet”.

Additionally, the hoogram logo in the upper left corner of the sticker was a horrible replica of what Intel normally places in that spot.

On top of that, the manual that comes with the processor (which I freely admit I throw away without reading as I suspect most system builders do) was completely blank inside.

Unless the buyer actually looked through the manual, the fakes would not have been detected.

Newegg made the following public announcement once they realized that these were not “demo units” shipped accidentally:

Initial information we received from our supplier, IPEX, stated that they had mistakenly shipped us “demo units.” We have since come to discover the CPUs were counterfeit and are terminating our relationship with this supplier. Contrary to any speculation, D&H Distributing is not the vendor that supplied us with the Intel Core i7-920 CPUs in question.

Newegg’s top priority is to proactively reach out to all customers who may have been affected to ensure their absolute satisfaction. We have already sent out a number of replacement units and are doing everything in our power to resolve the matter promptly and with the least amount of inconvenience to our customers.

We have always taken pride in providing an exceptional experience for each customer, and we apologize for any inconvenience to our valued customers. We take matters like this extremely seriously, and are working in close cooperation with Intel and the appropriate law enforcement authorities to thoroughly investigate this incident.

If you recently purchased an Intel Core i7 from Newegg, you might want to dig out that manual you tossed away to make certain you are not one of the victims in this.