Company threatens journalists over fake Intel CPU reports (Cease and desist from reporting. Now)

Techeye.net ^ | 07 Mar 2010 17:03 | Sylvie Barak

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WSJ also has the story:

Fake Intel Chips Disappoint Newegg Customers

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ZDNET has the story and photos:

Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

InformationWeek:

Intel Probing Bogus Processors

[justlurking]

A couple of clarifications:

Newegg isn't the company that is threatening the news site. It's D&H Distributing, who allegedly supplied the chips to Newegg.

I haven't found any article that says how D&H Distributing was identified as the supplier. If they didn't actually supply the chips, D&H is within their rights to complain.

Newegg might share some of the blame, depending on the quality of the counterfeiting. If the chip was shipped in what looked like a realistic Intel box, then they wouldn't have noticed unless they opened the boxes and checked the contents.

To Newegg's credit, they are providing replacements quickly and assisting Intel in the investigation.

[antiRepublicrat]

Any company can get faked out by its distributors, but

noted that Newegg had shipped replacements for the fake CPUs quickly to affected customers

Good companies remedy the situation with their customers quickly. I like Newegg.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

HardOCP is throwing up sources of article...not sure where D & H got identified...presumably from a contact at Newegg....

Fake Processor Story Taking on a Life of its Own

***********EXCERPT**************

It seems that the NewEgg Fake Processor story we broke over the weekend has really taken on a life of its own. Dozens of news outlets have picked up the story, some even have added details and information on other consumers that have received counterfeit processors. Here is a preliminary list of sites with additional coverage:

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And:

Newegg Selling Fake Intel CPUs

**************************************EXCERPT*************************************

After talking to several sources on this, it seems that Newegg was in fact selling counterfeit Intel processors.

A fake Intel Core i7-920 was delivered to the hands of HardForum user Vincent Waller in Oregon, AKA "Nix." He reported his find to other HardForum users Thursday afternoon.

From the pictures below, supplied by Vincent, you can see that someone did a fairly good job of hiding the obviousness of what was being traded off as a genuine Intel processor.

[Noumenon]

“D&H, however,threw its toys out of its pram...”

Love that turn of phrase...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Got to be from the UK...

[SJSAMPLE]

Yep.
You never hear about the guys that do a “good” job. The blend in with eachother and they don’t make the news.

Situations like this create an excellent opportunity for a business. They get free press (even if it’s initially bad), and they get additional press for the “immaculate recovery”.

Johnson & Johnson’s handling of the 1980s Tylenol tampering, deaths and the recovery is textbook on how to do it right.

[Publius6961]

Bookmark

[justlurking]

From the pictures below, supplied by Vincent, you can see that someone did a fairly good job of hiding the obviousness of what was being traded off as a genuine Intel processor.

I followed your earlier links and found one that had lots of pictures. Unfortunately, I can't find it now. But, someone went to a lot of trouble to create a fake box.

There was even an apparent seal, until you peeled back the seal and saw that the Intel logo that should be on the tape was printed on the box.

The cooling fan that you see in the window on the box was actually a picture of a fan, attached to the top of a plastic mold of a fan assembly.

However, Newegg isn't doing themselves any favors by claiming these were "demo" units that were mistakenly shipped. Perhaps they were told this by the distributor, which I think would indict the distributor as participants in the scam.

[justlurking]

“D&H, however,threw its toys out of its pram...” I thought it was "threw his dummy out of the pram".

("Dummy" is the British name for pacifier. And of course, a "pram" is a baby stroller).

[ntmxx]

I don’t think Newegg is an issue here, a very good and well respected company with a lot of banked credibility throughout its clientele channel; not sure about D&H.

What concerns me is, Intel and the FBI plus a bunch of other groups should be involved to ferrite out the source of this and reverse engineer chip/processor and what it does; possible Chicom Chips. Does this knockoff include VPN pipelines, malware, Trojans, Remote Control, call home and other coded features that allow hacking from a far? Remember once in side the network easy pick’ns.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Try link at #8...that might be it....I started with an HardOCP article....

[Clock King]

I’m glad HardOCP isn’t knuckling under to a bunch of shyster lawyers from D&H. They and many others have the physical proof, and Intel has confirmed that these are not Demo Boxes. Fix your damn supply chain and stop who is doing this.

[Noumenon]

Yep - the picture that it creates of the law firm is so appropos - a baby throwing a tantrum.

[gogogodzilla]

Now that the news is out on a mainstream media outlet... this guy needs to countersue for defamation of character and harassment.

[jmatt55]

Now that D&H has been shown not to be the vendor in question, I think an apology and retraction is in order. You sounded very sure that they were guilty.

Just a thought for everyone: A Cease and Desist order is not an indication of guilt. If someone is slandering you and hurting your business with untrue accusations, you have a legal right to make them stop.

Bloggers pretending to be journalists (like HardOCP) have an obligation to make some effort to check their facts before trying to do material harm to another person or company.