A Reddit user named Nico1300 recently shared that a gamer friend spent about $400 on what was advertised as a new, high-performance Intel Core i7-14700K processor.
The friend quickly noticed something was wrong when the processor couldn’t be installed into his LGA 1700 socket motherboard as expected. A closer inspection revealed that the label identifying it as a Core i7-14700K wasn’t legitimate—it was a sticker. Peeling it off unveiled the truth.
The processor was actually a Core i5-760 with an LGA 1156 socket, a much older chip released in late 2010 and discontinued years ago. This outdated model can be found on eBay for about $9.99. By contrast, the Core i7-14700K was launched in late 2023 and retails for approximately $370.
According to Nico1300, his friend had purchased the processor directly from Amazon, where it was listed as brand new. Given that Amazon itself was the seller, it seemed like a reliable purchase.
In the Reddit thread, some users speculated about how this could have happened. One popular theory was that another customer had bought a genuine Intel Core i7-14700K, kept it, and returned the old Core i5-760 with a sticker to Amazon for a refund.
It’s likely that someone at Amazon inspected the return but didn’t recognize the counterfeit. The sticker had done its job, and the mislabeled processor was restocked and sold again as new.
One commenter claiming to work at Amazon noted that returned components are usually examined by staff equipped with advanced tools, like X-ray scanners, to verify authenticity. However, in this instance, the fake processor seems to have slipped through, resulting in the gamer’s unfortunate purchase.
Image | Nico1300 on Reddit
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