Recently, a Reddit user posted that after spending nearly 3,000 euros (approximately 23,235 RMB) on a top-tier RTX 5090 graphics card from Amazon Netherlands, they opened the package to find two bags of rice, a pack of pasta, and a dusty old-generation graphics card instead.
Reportedly, the user saved for a year to purchase this GIGABYTE AORUS GeForce RTX 5090 Master (commonly known as "Big Eagle") to pair with their Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch ultra-wide monitor.
Logistics showed the graphics card was shipped from a warehouse in Spain. Although delivered by Amazon, there was a one-week delay. Upon receiving the package, the user noticed signs of the seal being re-applied, and the interior was stuffed with miscellaneous items to simulate the weight of a top-tier graphics card.
It's worth noting that the AORUS RTX 5090 Master is one of the top air-cooled graphics cards on the market. It features a massive heatsink fin array and a triple-fan system, boasting not only powerful performance but also impressive physical specifications, with the entire card often weighing over 2 kilograms.
The scammer clearly understood this, precisely exploiting agricultural products of equivalent weight to deceive Amazon's automated warehouse weighing systems.
Under Amazon's FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) model, returned items with intact seals are often directly restocked and resold, which provides an opportunity for scammers.
In fact, scams targeting the RTX 5090 are not isolated incidents. Previous reports indicated that 42 consumers in the US recently ordered the same graphics card at a bargain price of $999 (approximately 7,090 RMB), only to receive cheap fanny packs instead.
In France, a player received a graphics card that appeared intact externally, but the core chip and VRAM had been completely removed, leaving only an empty PCB shell.
The user has currently filed for a refund with Amazon, but the claims process is exceptionally cumbersome due to the high unit price and cross-border shipping involved.