Buyer Beware: GPU Thieves Robbed A Truck Hauling EVGA GeForce RTX 30 Cards
Has anybody seen Dominic Toretto lately? We ask because EVGA has confirmed that a shipment of GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards was recent stolen from a truck en route from San Francisco to its Southern California distribution center, and we can't help but conjure up images from the Fast and Furious franchise.
It probably didn't go down quite like the way these things are portrayed in the movies. However, a thief or band of thieves did make off with thousands of dollars worth of graphics cards based on NVIDIA's latest generation Ampere architecture. In a notice posted to its support forum, EVGA product manager Jacob Freeman said each of the stolen cards ranged in MSRP from $329.99 on up to $1,959.99.
Freeman didn't say exactly how many cards were stolen, but we assume it was more than one each from both ends of the pricing spectrum. At minimum, it looks like the GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming ($329.99) and GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Hydro Copper Gaming ($1,959.99) were among SKUs of stolen cards.
These creates an unfortunate 'buyer beware' type of situation, as EVGA knows the serial numbers of each stolen card and has invalidated warranted coverage on each of them.
"If you are able to successfully register your product and see it under My Products, then your product is NOT affected by this notice, you can also check the serial number at the EVGA Warranty Check page to see if it is affected.
EVGA will NOT REGISTER or HONOR ANY WARRANTY or UPGRADE claims on these products," Freeman explains.
In normal situations, it would be a little easier to know if you're buying a stolen card. For example, if the price is too good to be true, and/or if the seller tells you it fell off a truck. But given the high demand of graphics cards in general, these could easily fetch way more than their MSRPs. The only tricky part for the thieves is leaving behind a paper trail, as would be the case if hawking these on eBay.
Freeman also points out that it is "criminal and civil offense to 'buy or receive' property that has been stolen," under state and federal law. So as unfortunate as this situation is all around, you'll want to do your due diligence if buying an EVGA GeForce RTX 30 card from a third-party source.
Thumbnail Image Source: Universal Pictures
