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Say I want a new RTX card, but I'd never in a million years be willing to pay the small fortune Nvidia is demanding due to the crypto/AI bubbles. What's the least risky way to scam one from Amazon? (hexbear.net)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Generally speaking, I get the feeling I should stick to something that isn't worth enough for felony theft charges to apply, so no RTX 4090 or 4080. The 4070 Ti isn't at all a bad deal for $0.00, so I suppose that's the one.

I've heard conflicting reports on how likely Amazon is to refund you if you simply claim the box showed up with a brick in it. I've also seen conflicting reports on whether or not they'll actually check if a return has the same serial number on it. What say you, Hexbear?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

So it will be riskier if your account doesn’t have a solid history of purchases and returns. My account is shared with a bunch of people who purchase way more shit than I ever do, so it’s likely they don’t care if I skim a few hundred dollars every now and then because the other purchases offset it. L

I can be speaking out my ass, of course.

Anyway, often times I would go to customer support chat and just say that a product isn’t working and I’d like to make a return. However, you also gotta sound very busy and a little irritated about having to return your stuff because Amazon “failed” to meet its obligations. If you’re convincing enough or the employee doesn't care, they’ll refund you without making you return anything.

There are three ways to go about this:

The package was stolen: you tell support that you didn’t get home until late at night due to work and the package is missing.
The product damaged my device: the graphics card overheated and your computer started smoking. The card is damaged and so is your computer, and you’re very upset. You don’t feel comfortable taking apart components because they’re still smoking and could electrocute you or cause fires.
Bait and switch: Order some no name graphics card on alibaba or whatnot. Tell Amazon support that despite it being labeled new, the package arrived opened and inside was a random graphics card that isn’t NVIDIA. Tell them you do not trust Amazon to deliver genuine products and you want a refund. They will likely make you return the package. This will leave a paper trail of you purchasing the other card, but it’s unlikely they’ll check unless it’s like $1500. However, if you look hard enough you may find a bootleg of the actual card which means it’ll look mostly similar to the original.