Scam Alert: Beware Of Fake $199 AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Listings On Amazon

AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D with a heaping pile of 3D V-Cache to give gaming a boost is one of the best-selling CPUs on Amazon. It's also a brand new and highly-anticipated addition to AMD's Ryzen 9000 series, being the first X3D model in the Zen 5 desktop CPU family and all, and it's attracted scammers who are hoping to swindle buyers with tantalizing pricing—just $199.99! Hey, we love a good deal as much as the next person, but if you see this chip selling for that price (even during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales), run in the other direction.

A rash of fake Ryzen 7 9800X3D listings recently appeared on Amazon, and while it appears they've now been removed—kudos to Amazon for taking swift action—there's always the chance they could reappear. This is definitely one of those cases where if the price appears too good to be true, then it surely is. Another telltale sign is that the listings got some of the details wrong. Very wrong.

According to the folks at WePC, who spotted multiple fraudulent listings and snapped screenshots before they were taken down, there are two sellers responsible who listed them all—Lingmengj and Huangwenjie12334. We're not going to link out to them, but both seller profiles are still live at the time of this writing, and both indicate they're from China. One of them has a 50% positive rating (3 out of 5 stars) based on two reviews, with the positive review almost definitely being a fake.

It also appears that the sellers are using bots to generate the fake listings. For example, one of the listings was littered with incorrect details, including the following...

• Processor Count: 3
• Processor Socket: LGA 1156
• Platform: Amiga 500
• Secondary Cache: 1
• Processor Series: 1.2GHz Cortex A8 Processor
• Processor Speed: 1
• Manufacturer: 423634fx

Absolutely none of those details are even remotely correct, and if you're like us, just looking at the list makes your head explode. We have the correct details (along with benchmarks and analysis) in our Ryzen 7 9800X3D review, but to recap, it's an 8-core/16-thread processor with a 4.7GHz base clock, 5.2GHz max boost clock, 8MB of L2 cache, 96MB of L3 cache, and a 120W TDP. It's also Zen 5 chip for AMD's socket AM5, not Intel's LGA 1156.

What's also difficult about the situation is that this chip is pretty much sold out everywhere, so these types of listings can catch less savvy shoppers off guard. That said, stick with reputable, first-party sellers and listings if you're shopping for this SKU. Here's the correct listing on Amazon.