Possible Intel i3-6100 CPU eBay scam?

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kannonk

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Nov 27, 2016
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I've noticed over the last several days that some i3-6100 have been going on sale for very low prices. Often, it's someone in the USA with 0, 1 or 2 feedback and they're shipping from Hong Kong. And it's also often the same page layout with the same quantity of CPUs. They sell out fast then later another listing appears.
Has anyone else noticed this? Does anybody have a clue what is going on?
 
The i3-6100 is obsolete. It was a good little processor, especially if you had a motherboard that you could do some BCLK overclocking. Unfortunately this was a bit of a hack so you lost the AVX instructions and there were a few other issues when BCLK overlclocking Skylake on most boards.

The new replacement i3-7350K is ready for release. This one will be easy to overclock because it is a K series CPU with a fully unlocked multiplier. You will be able to overclock this CPU probably 10% higher than the i3-6100 without any negative side effects. The new CPU will also have higher IPC so combined, it is a big step forward. In something like Cinebench that uses the AVX instructions, the new 7350K is going to mop the floor compared to an overclocked i3-6100.

For this reason, it is not surprising that anyone that is sitting on a pile of i3-6100 CPUs is going to be going to EBay and unloading them as fast as possible before the 7350K is officially released. I have an i3-6100 and I might dump it on EBay next month too.
 
You know, for someone who just dumped on this sales fraud description thread with a pointless technical rant, you don't actually know anything.

The Core i3 6100 is already highly-clocked, and Kaby Bridge is just an overclocked Skylake with a revamped GPU. See how close the Core i3 6100 comes to the Kaby core in Geekbench 4?

3j75AS5.jpg


http://browser.primatelabs.com/v4/cpu/1204669

That shiny new is only 10% faster than the $105 dollar Core i3 6100. This one will be at least $160, the price Intel charges for their top-end Core i3 Skylake. It will also use more power, because it's just a factory-overclocked core.

And OH YEAH, the overclocked from the factory means your dreams of overclocking it much further are burned.
 
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Seems to me there ought to be an i3-7100 for the same price as the i3-6100. But in case they were selling engineering samples, how could you tell on the CPU?
 
Of course, MSRP to MSRP, they'll both be $120. My point is that, due to the clearing of old stock, the i3 6100 is on special. I'd expect the i3 7100 to launch at the same $120 as the 6100 did.

From one gen to the next, the entry-level i3 typically gets a 100-200 MHz bump.

I'd expect 3.8 GHz for i3-7100, which would give the same 200MHz of room for the K version as we currently have on 6100 to 6320.. So not a big deal again, might as well go 6100.
 
The reason I got suspicious is these auctions are from people who have only a few feedbacks. And they're still appearing. I saved some links but noticed now some only go to a search page for the same CPU instead of the original auction. Why does this happen to some links? Is it because eBay deleted it or because the seller deletes the page?

How can you tell if you get a counterfeit CPU?
 
How can you tell if you get a counterfeit CPU?
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You have to install it to make sure that it reports the correct cpuid. I guess instead of reporting that it is instead a Pentium..
 
See, once again today I saw someone with 0 feedback selling the same CPU, same quantity at the same price and shipping from Hong Kong. I forgot to mention I did buy one. And I understand it's always possible that tracking numbers from Hong Kong won't work. But I did get a tracking # from Hong Kong and it literally won't work either on the Hong Kong postal web site or the Canada Post web site either.
 
Last time this happened, the orders were cancelled, the seller's account was suspended and eBay sent everyone a refund.

It's a phishing scam to get people's addresses and information.
 
janas19 said:
Last time this happened, the orders were cancelled, the seller's account was suspended and eBay sent everyone a refund.

It's a phishing scam to get people's addresses and information.
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OMG, thanks for the reply. I was thinking eventually someone would see this and possibly recognize what it is. I usually prefer to stay objective but if this is what it is, I wonder what I have to do to protect myself. Actually, my Paypal is tied to a secondary (non-essential) bank account.
 
I keep seeing scammy-looking listings in the other direction—a $5 cable adapter listed for $350, that kind of thing. And then somebody buys it at that price. I wonder if it's part of a money-laundering scheme, to turn money of dubious origin into clean-looking eBay sales.
 
That's a good one because I saw some Yamaha NX-50 speakers for 99,999.99 British pounds on amazon.uk.
 
kannonk said:
That's a good one because I saw some Yamaha NX-50 speakers for 99,999.99 British pounds on amazon.uk.
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That's a drop shipper tactic while they wait for their supply to get back in stock. Changing the price to a ridiculous amount saves the effort of cancelling the listing and reposting it again.
 
pxc said:
That's a drop shipper tactic while they wait for their supply to get back in stock. Changing the price to a ridiculous amount saves the effort of cancelling the listing and reposting it again.
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Oh, OK. Now I see the value of that strategy.
 
kannonk said:
See, once again today I saw someone with 0 feedback selling the same CPU, same quantity at the same price and shipping from Hong Kong. I forgot to mention I did buy one. And I understand it's always possible that tracking numbers from Hong Kong won't work. But I did get a tracking # from Hong Kong and it literally won't work either on the Hong Kong postal web site or the Canada Post web site either.
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I had to use another tracking site to check my parcel from hong kong.
 
I've been dealing with buyers on eBay who list their address as some shipping company in Delaware or NJ but are actually located in Russia/Ukraine/Georgia.

Had a Russian with zero feedback purchase a R9 280X I was selling. Address was some delivery service (Shopfans or something) in Delaware. Sent payment right away. Once I started looking into the address, I quickly found out there were many others who have been scammed by people using similar addresses.

I canceled the ordered and refunded the buyer. Ain't nobody got time for that
 
There is a fad going on of listing high value goods at low prices. These people with no feedback are just taking the money. Sell 10 1080 get $5000. only works until first person doesn't receive the part. seller gets canned and needs to open a new store. Happening on amazon and ebay. These guys are using "sticking it to the man" as buyers will get refunded. check the feedback. buyers feedback is worthless but sellers is critical. As a seller I can say we will do about anything to avoid negative feedback.
 
backwoods said:
I had to use another tracking site to check my parcel from hong kong.
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I just clicked on 3 links after searching for "Hong Kong Post" in google and all web sites had no info for my tracking number. At least I changed my Paypal password. Don't know what else I can do but wait until I get a message I was refunded...
 
backwoods said:
did u try all in one package tracking. 17 net one?
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I just did and double-checked the number. My notes indicate I ordered the CPU on eBay on November 23, 2016 for $63.69 Canadian dollars (for brand new Intel i3-6100). Today, I ordered the Intel i3-6100 for $147 CAD with shipping and tax from NCIX. After buying the Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H from Amazon.ca for $132 with shipping and tax and 8GB of Kingston Fury RAM (HX421C14FBK2/8) for $72 CAD with shipping and tax (EDIT: from newegg.ca), I'm comfortable with that. I mean I got mobo, CPU & RAM for about $350 for a backup machine I wanted to use for Bluestacks. I'm just hoping the dual-core will be sufficient for running Bluestacks. I'm assuming eBay will eventually refund the $63. (I have to wait until the expected date of shipping which is end of January. I didn't want to wait that long for a CPU.) I know I could have paid a bit less for the mobo and RAM but the H110 mobos apparently have a bus speed of 5 Gigatranfers per second while the H170 mobos have 8 Gigatransfers per second. (The i3-6100 has a bus rate of 8GT/s.) And the Fury RAM has heatsinks while value RAM doesn't. Even if I don't want to overclock, I want cooler temperatures for long term reliability. (The Gigabyte mobo also has good audio and Internet.)
 
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lol, so I finally took the time to click on the eBay money back guarantee banner on their web site (only way I could find the buttons to click to make a request) and made a request to be refunded. It says the seller is no longer a registered user. I was able to make a request to be refunded but this person apparently made a request that the case be "examined" (forgot the exact word). I never received the CPU and the tracking number never worked. I think January 30, 2017 is the date I get an answer.
 
Any news? I've seen a ton of laptops being listed for like 50 bucks even though they're worth 500 plus. All out of China. Surprised ebay doesn't get on top of something like that.
 
mnewxcv said:
Any news? I've seen a ton of laptops being listed for like 50 bucks even though they're worth 500 plus. All out of China. Surprised ebay doesn't get on top of something like that.
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Did you click on the username to see if they're in the US? Because the ads I saw if I remember correctly were all about the same: same layout, same description, same price, same quantity, but different usernames in the US shipping from Hong Kong and very few feedback scores (like 1, 2 or 3).

Anyway, eBay refunded me but since I'm in Canada and the transaction was done in US dollars, I actually lost $5 Canadian after the refund. I don't know if it's just the Paypal fees or the difference in exchange fees.

In the end, maybe I only lost time and $5 but think if there's a band of criminals running scams on eBay, I believe Homeland Security should look into this. They're targeting people. (Who knows, maybe they're doing it thinking some people WON'T ask for a refund.)
 
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