this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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Devastated PC builder orders DDR5 RAM from Amazon, receives DDR2 and some weights — counterfeit 32GB kit a worrying sign of rising return and sales fraud (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 days ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I stopped ordering tech on Amazon when I got a fraud twice in a month on back-to-back orders a few years back.

First was a laptop that wouldn't start. I looked at the bottom and the scewes were mostly stripped, and once I got them out most of the components had been removed from the boards.

Second was a Spyder color calibrator. What I got instead was a iPhone 4 screen protector with a sticker slapped on with the UPC for what I'd ordered. When I tried returning it, they gave me flack for slap-tagging a return, but I was able to escalate in that case.

[–] indyradio@kafeneio.social 16 points 1 day ago (5 children)

@chiliedogg @themachinestops
Amazon will consistently facilitate fraud. I had sworn I would not order from them, but it seemed there was an exceptional deal on a certain type of tortilla.
There were supposed to be 12 bags of tortillas, but there were only 10.
I read there guidelines, and there is absolutely no recourse for something like this. I opened the box, now it's mine.

I had decided quite firmly I wouldn't deal with them, and it was a serious mistake when I did.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago

So what exactly did you do to piss off the Amazon Returns department? Because from my experience, they are the most lenient company when it comes to returns/refunds. I've had stuff arrive broken, or scuffed up, or it was the wrong item, or I just plain didn't like a product and every time I've been able to submit a return without having to interact with a single person.

I feel like you either have to be lying about your experience, didn't even try to return it, or did something that got your account flagged.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Amazon Let Its Drivers’ Urine Be Sold as an Energy Drink

Drivers urinating in bottles has been reported in the past, but what wasn’t known is that some claim they also get penalized for having those urine-filled bottles in their truck when they return to the warehouse.

...

To avoid penalties, they end up discarding the bottles by the side of the road. Butler searches the roadsides near Amazon warehouses from Coventry to New York to Los Angeles and more often than not strikes liquid gold.

From there, it’s laughably straightforward for Butler to get Release listed for sale on Amazon, with very few checks and balances in place to ensure the product he’s selling is safe and legal. “Releasing the drink was surprisingly easy,” Butler told WIRED. “I thought that the food and drinks licensing would stop me from listing it, so I started it out in this Refillable Pump Dispenser category. Then the algorithm moved it into drinks.”

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[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, if it's not made by Amazon and sold by them, I typically won't buy it. All the other stuff is just marked up stuff from AliExpress and temu.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

They don't make anything. You're buying marked up stuff from AliExpress and temu that has an "Amazon basics" sticker on it.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

I get that, but imo they do vet them and make sure it's not absolute crap.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I buy and maintain about $20K of computer equipment a year for my lab. We learned around 2020 Amazon is a nest of scammers, from the suppliers to the delivery people.

There has been a significant resurgence of local computer supply retail because millions have been ripped off and only now buy in person.

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[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 30 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's sickening how little Amazon seem to give a fuck about this. They could easily tighten up their vetting of sellers, but heaven fucking forbid they only report a $50,000,000,000 profit this year instead of $50,003,000,000.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (4 children)

They've invested extensively in automating their supply chain to the point that humans aren't looking inside these boxes anymore. And as customer support is increasingly replaced with AI, the ability to flag and report businesses for fraud has erodes even as the businesses themselves have grown more sophisticated in duping Amazon anti-fraud systems.

The quest to remove every actual thinking human from the inside of your business results in humans outside of your business exploiting the blind spots to the hilt.

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[–] kamen@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So they don't have the resources to check returned goods or what? Or they simply don't care enough?

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 2 points 22 hours ago

Yup this isn't a fraud problem. Just an Amazon problem

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't buy expensive shit off Amazon. They don't do anything to prevent fraud.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 20 hours ago

We caught a driver on camera take a picture of a $2000 PC on a doorstep, then move it back into his truck. Took a month to resolve with Amazon. If you have to deal with these clowns, use the local pickup option from a locker.

[–] Ydna@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Buying electronics from Amazon is really rolling the dice. I've received so many inadvertent open box returns... it's just a matter of time before you get burned.

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Newegg is also shit and so is bestbuy. I don't have a microcenter near me. What else is there? I guess buying direct. Is there anything I'm missing?

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 20 hours ago

Best buy resellers are worse than eBay.

[–] RamRabbit@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

B&H is a great source for electronics, computer parts, and photography.

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[–] ryrybang@lemmy.world 213 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Buying from a reputable operation spares you from a lot of this. Amazon is all hot garbage across the board.

[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 61 points 2 days ago (26 children)

It wasn't technology, but i ordered a new mad lib style book for my kid from Amazon. The book arrived with cellophane around it and a nice label that clearly said new. Once opened, it was very obvious the book was used, since the last kid had already filled out the whole damn thing including his name and address inside the cover.

I'm not mad at the kid, although his parents are probably bad people for returning the book at that point. I am livid that Amazon didn't flip to any random page in the book too determine if the book was used or not.

Fuck Amazon.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Actually that cellophane was brand new, as the label indicated.

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[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

My headlight connector got a little melty, just enough to get loose and stop working, just wore out I suppose.

I bought one on Amazon, along with new bulbs, installed it, and within an hour the new connector had catastrophically melted and shorted out enough to blow the fuse.

I should've known, the wire felt cheap, copper clad aluminum. But I thought it would be fine, it's just a headlight 🤷‍♂️

Now I've got a replacement from the local auto parts. So far so good.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

This is a problem with all auto parts, even from NAPA supplying to garages. Mechanics are going broke replacing defective "new" parts.

[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 2 points 19 hours ago

Makes sense. I work at a different type of repair shop, we just had a brand new $400 battery go up in smoke on first power up. Ridiculous.

[–] DoctorPress@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Did you receive refunds or do amazon and scammers got away with it?

[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

They got away with it. I bought the part months ago after bodging a fix on the stock connector. By time the bodge failed, the return window closed. It was $5 so unfortunately not worth my time fighting it.

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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 57 points 2 days ago (1 children)

16 GB DDR2 + 16 GB DDR3 makes 32GB DDR5, right?

[–] Strobelt@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

32 GBGB DDDDRR5 actually. Much better!

[–] ragas@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 days ago

32 GB² DDR²5

[–] immobile7801@piefed.social 51 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Its amazon, just return it. That's really the only good thing about amazon anymore, easy returns.

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[–] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (4 children)

“… from Amazon”

Well there’s your problem.

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[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 69 points 2 days ago (10 children)

This isn’t exclusive to Amazon. I had it happen with friends build back in the Newegg days.

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[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 2 days ago

I ordered 2x32GB DDR5 on Amazon two years ago and received 1x32 and 1x8 in the same package.

Luckily they replaced it for me completely, still wild. Can only imagine it's going to get worse.

[–] brandon@lemmy.world 58 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Cost doesn’t seem to matter with return fraud. I recently received a “new” $6 item that had its contents replaced with a $4 item and then taped shut. Seriously, who wastes their time on this stuff?

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 66 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

Probably the same people running Pokémon card hustles. I recently saw a guy acting all pissy he had to wait in line at target to buy some packs, started berating the workers “you work at target, you’re broke as fuck”. The workers actually went in on him, I was so happy to see it. They made fun of him for trying to hustle over cards for children and told him to go home and cry to his mom about it.

That’s the kind of loser wasting their time on 2-5 dollar profit per return.

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