RTX 3090 scam: Buyer finds chopped-up Radeon PCB inside NVIDIA cooler
A hardware repair enthusiast, Blighted Agent, has shared a bizarre case of marketplace fraud. After purchasing what looked like an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition on Facebook Marketplace for $50, the buyer discovered that the device was not an NVIDIA product at all, but a heavily modified AMD Radeon R9 280 3GB PCB hidden inside the premium cooler.
The deception: what was actually inside
The seller had explicitly warned in the listing that the card might be missing its GPU and memory chips. Blighted Agent was willing to take the risk, hoping to repurpose the PCB for a custom GeForce RTX 3080 20GB project. However, the physical reality was far from a simple stripped-down NVIDIA board.
Several red flags were present upon closer inspection: the PCB featured a glossy finish characteristic of Gigabyte designs rather than the matte finish of Founders Edition boards. Additionally, the DisplayPort, HDMI, and power connector slots were empty, and the NVLink connector cover had been glued into place.
Upon removing the NVIDIA cooler, the buyer found a Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3GB PCB that had been physically cut on both sides to fit the dimensions of the RTX 3090 shroud. The board had been severely mutilated: the display outputs were cut off, and five memory chips were missing. It appears the seller used an old AMD card to mimic the presence of a GPU inside the expensive NVIDIA chassis.
A warning to buyers
While the buyer did receive an authentic RTX 3090 cooler for his $50, he has no plans to attempt a repair. Instead, he shared the teardown as a warning to others purchasing high-end hardware on second-hand marketplaces. He advises potential buyers to thoroughly test components before purchase and to use payment methods that offer buyer protection.
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