Scams involving fake GeForce RTX 5090s are starting to appear in repair shops. These cards are actually empty shells, without GPUs or memory, from models modified for IA use in China.
This phenomenon, already common with RTX 4090s, concerns boards stripped of their components to be reassembled elsewhere. The remaining parts (PCBs, cooling systems) are resold as functional boards to private individuals, with no possibility of return.
Some fraudulent boards are difficult to identify, with the memory on one side of the PCB or hidden under a full fairing. Warranty stickers or refurbished packaging further mislead the buyer.
Workshops like Northwestrepair are already reporting cases. Our advice remains simple: only buy via platforms with a refund policy, film the opening, and prefer payment methods with protection.
