Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs launched last January, but supply has been so low that many retailers ran out of stock in under five minutes. Because of this, many scalpers and scammers are taking advantage of the situation to make a quick buck by fooling unsuspecting buyers.
These Listings Were Designed to Confuse Bots
A top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card starts at $1,999, with examples made by other manufacturers going for well over that amount. Even the RTX 5080 FE, which starts at $999, could go for much higher straight from Nvidia’s partners.
However, because these GPUs are few and far between, many enterprising scalpers use bots to quickly purchase them from retailers and then resell them online on platforms like eBay or Facebook Marketplace at unreasonable markups.
This technique was prevalent during the Covid-19 Pandemic, when console scalpers bought the newly launched PlayStation 5 en masse and sold them online at a huge price hike. Because of this, some people started putting up fake listings being sold at or close to the suggested retail price.
These listings come with a warning, though, as the item description clearly marks that they’re only selling an image of the item and not the actual product. They did this so that the scalper bots would see a reasonably priced desirable object for resale and buy it immediately without looking at the details; the “seller” would then pocket the money and tell the scalper that they actually just bought a printed JPEG file instead of the real thing.
Scammers Are Taking Advantage of Clueless Buyers
While this a noble, although somewhat dubious, pursuit, some of the people who do this have turned to the dark side themselves while other scammers use this excuse of “fooling scalper bots” to put up these fake listings. Digital Trends say that buyers who are excited that they finally saw a reasonably priced GPU would just buy the item without looking at the details, despite all the warnings on the listing.
What’s worse is that the seller would claim that they will not accept any refunds, so even if you bought the item by mistake, you’re getting nothing back. I’ve even seen one feedback on a scam listing that said that they made the purchase in error, but the seller just ignored their messages to cancel the order.
How Do You Protect Yourself?
This is just one of the many eBay and online selling scams that proliferate the online world that you should know. Remember, when you’re buying anything online, especially if it’s a person-to-person transaction, you should be careful and think twice before sending any money. The most important thing is that you should always read all the details of the listing so that you know what you’re actually purchasing.
Another clue that listing might not be true is if the description or other information on the listing looks like it uses a different font style or size. Scammers often use this to try and confuse the platform’s scam filters, and they sometimes get past these defenses.
Finally, check out the seller’s reputation—if they have zero or only a few feedback notes, this means that the account is either new or is rarely used. While it doesn’t automatically mean that the person behind that account is a scammer, you should be extra careful as they do not have a reputation yet for being a good seller and these reviews might have even been faked.
Remember, if you’re looking to buy anything online—whether it’s a hard-to-find GPU or an entire car—you should always follow this age-old adage: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
