Posted on 03/08/2010 2:37:51 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
On Friday, two sites reported that online e-tailer Newegg seemed to be inadvertently shipping out counterfeit Intel CPUs to punters. A storm of letters from my learned fiends has ensued.
HardOCP reported that one of its forum members, a Vincent Waller from Oregon, had had the misfortune of unboxing his Core i7-920 only to discover it was a rather horrid fake. Waller took pictures and posted them on the forum. HardOCP reposted the photos in an article.
From the outside, the box looked completely legitimate, it was only when Waller got to the inside that, he said, things started to look fishy. It even contained a booklet of blank pages loosely stapled together to pass as the instruction manual. So someone went to remarkable efforts here.
HardOCP also reported that another source told its reporter that “300 counterfeit processors were purchased by Newegg". Fakes were delivered last week in a shipment totalling 2,000 pieces, it reported.
HardOCP also said its source said that Newegg had now "discovered" all 300 counterfeit processors.
Tech community site, Icrontic, picked up the HardOCP story and noted that Newegg had shipped replacements for the fake CPUs quickly to affected customers and that both the e-tailer and Intel were in the process of investigating where the chips came from.
A company called D&H Distributing doesn’t consider it legitimate for the free press took umbrage to this. In fact, the legal beagles over at D&H Distributing got so worked up over the horrifying gall and chutzpah of Icrontic and HardOCP for daring to ask a question that the company slapped both publications with a “cease and desist” order.
Sent by the lawyers representing D&H, Creim Macias Koenig & Frey, it reads in part:
“It has recently been brought to our attention that you are responsible for publishing on the internet, and specifically on your websites, untrue statements respecting allegedly counterfeit Intel Core i7 processors which you allege were sold to Newegg by D&H.
“This letter places you on notice that these statements are false. You have no basis for publishing these false and malicious statements about D & H. These false allegations are defamatory and disparaging to D&H”s business and business relations and have caused grave and irreparable damage to our client.”
At this point, we feel compelled to point out that neither publication “stated” anything, both simply reported what they had been told by their sources, and asked a legitimate question. In public. Which the media does from time to time.
D&H, however,threw its toys out of its pram, demanding that both sites “IMMEDIATELY (i) cease and desist posting such defamatory material about D&H.; (ii) remove the contact and any reference to D&H from your website; and, (iii) post an immediate retraction and apology which shall remain posted for not less than thirty days.”
Er, anything else? Would you like a hug to go with that? Or a journalistic promise never to quote sources or investigate legitimate problems ever again?
The letter comes with an “or else” too.
“If you fail to do so by 5 p.m., pst., on March 6, 2010, D&H will pursue all of its rights and remedies, including, without limitation, an action for libel, will seek full recovery for the damages caused by your untrue statements including punitive damages, as well as seek injunctive relief.”
Injunctive relief, eh? Sounds like something a few senna pods in Mssrs. Creim Macias Koenig & Frey’s tea could sort out.
Well, Brian Ambrozy, editor of Icrontic shouldn’t be overly worried. Mostly because the lawyers couldn’t even spell his name correctly on the threatening C&D letter.
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.
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.
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:
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.
“D&H, however,threw its toys out of its pram...”
Love that turn of phrase...
Got to be from the UK...
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.
Bookmark
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.
("Dummy" is the British name for pacifier. And of course, a "pram" is a baby stroller).
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.
Try link at #8...that might be it....I started with an HardOCP article....
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.
Yep - the picture that it creates of the law firm is so appropos - a baby throwing a tantrum.
Now that the news is out on a mainstream media outlet... this guy needs to countersue for defamation of character and harassment.
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.
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