Post by mikkh on Mar 29, 2021 18:36:43 GMT
With the pandemic and the current Suez Canal blockage causing extreme shortages with graphic cards in particular for some strange reason, be wary of eBay scammers
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GTX1050TI-128Bit-4GB-DDR5-Graphics-Card-HDMI-VGA-DVI-GPU-Game-Video-Professional/313472272489?_trkparms=aid%3D777001%26algo%3DDISCO.FEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200211172457%26meid%3Dcc7ed40a903449799bb4a4155587c7c4%26pid%3D101213%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26mehot%3Dnone%26itm%3D313472272489%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26algv%3DRecommendingSearch%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2380057.c101213.m46344&_trkparms=pageci%3Adbf5193f-90b7-11eb-8300-0a08e6f67219%7Cparentrq%3A7f1fc1411780a9f5a7a86298ffefaa69%7Ciid%3A1
Here's one of the guilty parties and it's not actually a new thing, it's been going on for several years, but it's more likely to catch people out now, with current shortages tempting some to take a chance.
Even in the days of plenty, that price was so suspiciously cheap, it just had to be too good to be true - and it was!
Some wide boy had discovered a way of tweaking the BIOS to make it report as a much newer card, when in fact nearly all these fakes are actually ten year old+ 450 GTS cards and basically junk for modern games.
I've known about it for a while and so have eBay, but these scammers keep popping up with new user names, con a few people (presumably getting banned eventually) and then just make another new name to carry on doing it.
That's poor by eBay IMO, it's an obvious scam from the start if they made a basic check of current prices first. They should just refuse the listing and make an attempt to trace these con artists.
Even without the scammers it's a terrible time to get a graphics card. The shortages have increased prices to mind bogglig levels and it's just not worth it. I'm not a gamer and I would like a new budget card, but I'm not paying double for a low spec card. Ironically the fake card would be good enough for my basic needs and is better than the low spec modern ones !
Quick way to spot these fakes is by checking what ports are on it. The option of VGA (analogue) hasn't been on graphics cards for many years, even the newer DVI (first type of digital port) is quite rare.
Anything from the last 3 years or so will only have HDMI or DP (Display Port) on them - mostly both and occasionally DVI too. They will NEVER have VGA
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GTX1050TI-128Bit-4GB-DDR5-Graphics-Card-HDMI-VGA-DVI-GPU-Game-Video-Professional/313472272489?_trkparms=aid%3D777001%26algo%3DDISCO.FEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200211172457%26meid%3Dcc7ed40a903449799bb4a4155587c7c4%26pid%3D101213%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26mehot%3Dnone%26itm%3D313472272489%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26algv%3DRecommendingSearch%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2380057.c101213.m46344&_trkparms=pageci%3Adbf5193f-90b7-11eb-8300-0a08e6f67219%7Cparentrq%3A7f1fc1411780a9f5a7a86298ffefaa69%7Ciid%3A1
Here's one of the guilty parties and it's not actually a new thing, it's been going on for several years, but it's more likely to catch people out now, with current shortages tempting some to take a chance.
Even in the days of plenty, that price was so suspiciously cheap, it just had to be too good to be true - and it was!
Some wide boy had discovered a way of tweaking the BIOS to make it report as a much newer card, when in fact nearly all these fakes are actually ten year old+ 450 GTS cards and basically junk for modern games.
I've known about it for a while and so have eBay, but these scammers keep popping up with new user names, con a few people (presumably getting banned eventually) and then just make another new name to carry on doing it.
That's poor by eBay IMO, it's an obvious scam from the start if they made a basic check of current prices first. They should just refuse the listing and make an attempt to trace these con artists.
Even without the scammers it's a terrible time to get a graphics card. The shortages have increased prices to mind bogglig levels and it's just not worth it. I'm not a gamer and I would like a new budget card, but I'm not paying double for a low spec card. Ironically the fake card would be good enough for my basic needs and is better than the low spec modern ones !
Quick way to spot these fakes is by checking what ports are on it. The option of VGA (analogue) hasn't been on graphics cards for many years, even the newer DVI (first type of digital port) is quite rare.
Anything from the last 3 years or so will only have HDMI or DP (Display Port) on them - mostly both and occasionally DVI too. They will NEVER have VGA
