BUYER BEWARE! Fake Chinese "Intel 82599ES X520-DA2" Network Cards

[Halcyon]

I thought I'd make a post mainly so that Google's scrapers will index the relevant keywords for the next person.

I recently purchased a bunch of "Intel X520-DA2" 10 Gigabit NICs off from eBay seller "digiorange". Knowing full well that there are a bunch of these and similar counterfeit cards being sold online. This particular seller had clear photos of the item (or so I thought) which depicted real Intel cards.

The seller in this case was selling what purported to be genuine Intel for around the same price one would expect these cards to go for in used condition. The photos in the listing were what appeared to be genuine cards, complete with the Intel logo on the PCB.

However upon receipt, I received cards with the classic telltale signs of fake Chinese junk, it was even missing the silk screened Intel logo from the PCB (see attached photo). Full credit to this page in helping identify fake cards: https://sviko.com/t/how-to-distinguish-10-gigabit-network-card-intel-x520-da2-from-chinese-fakes/37

There were other obvious signs from the link above, including the packaging and the heatsink mount were incorrect and clearly not genuine Intel.

I contacted the seller who replied: "dear buyer we have sold 140+ pcs and have no one met a problem so can you just test it and you can try it works or not?after that any problem you can contact us". In other words: "We know they are fake, just try it and see if they work and let's not speak anymore of it".

Needless to say I filed a claim and got my money back and ebay removed the offending listing. However they are back with more fake cards (and slightly amended photos and description). They've also contacted me twice in the mean time to try to get me to change my feedback left on their profile. Screw them!

If buying Intel NICs online, be certain you are getting the real deal! Unless you know what to look for, you can be easily fooled.

EDIT: Sorry, wrong link above. Corrected. I'll also point out that not all genuine Intel NICs have the Yottamark hologram sticker on them. The actual Intel cards I have are from OEMs like Dell and IBM, they generally don't have them.

[amyk]

...so what are they, actually?

[MrMobodies]

Just looked at their profile:

https://www.ebay.com.au/usr/digiorange


I see the seller is from China and looks like they own warehouses in Australia.

I use to check the bottom of the page to see the details on where the seller is but I can't find it apart from their profile.

Nothing at the bottom about their contact info or where they are in China.

I thought when running a business on Ebay you have to declare your real name and address.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Intel-I350T4V2BLK-PCI-Express-PCI-E-Four-RJ45-Gigabit-Ports-Server-Adapter/113029486002

Also I see "No returns accepted" which doesn't sound very good considering it is a "new" item.

[thm_w]

Also I see "No returns accepted" which doesn't sound very good considering it is a "new" item.

Doesn't matter, if you mark the item as new and it is defective or counterfeit then you can return it.
They just don't want returns for no reason.

If your item arrives damaged, doesn’t match the listing description, or is the wrong item, you can return it for a refund. If you've changed your mind and want to send it back, you can ask the seller if they'll accept a return.

[Halcyon]

...so what are they, actually?

No idea. I wasn't even going to bother taking them out from their packaging and wasting my time with them.

Not sure if they even have Intel chips on them. From all reports, they at least use Intel drivers, so determining a fake in software is difficult.

Just looked at their profile:

https://www.ebay.com.au/usr/digiorange


I see the seller is from China and looks like they own warehouses in Australia.

Yep, so the address came from a genuine Australian address not far from Sydney, but the "company" name was something entirely different. It looks like just any other warehouse/commercial complex with multiple units. Admittedly I didn't see that the seller was from China until after I purchased, normally I steer clear of Chinese sellers, I even added a filter for Australia Only and these still showed up.

[Johncanfield]

I bought a used rubidium precision oscillator from a Chinese Ebay seller. He had "100%" seller satisfaction bla bla bla. Product was guaranteed bla bla. It took 3 or 4 weeks for it to arrive and went out of lock after 2 hours. Then the message exchanges started and he finally agreed to take it back so I spent about $30 US for postage to China.

He was a real con artist, by this time Ebay shut off my ability to give the seller a bad rating. He kept telling me the package never arrived bla bla bla. About three months later guess what showed up in my mailbox  -  my rubidium oscillator. That slimeball never picked up the package.

His Ebay seller name was/is "Tradespotting." These people know how to game the system,  they do it on Amazon with bogus product reviews.

[Halcyon]

His Ebay seller name was/is "Tradespotting." These people know how to game the system,  they do it on Amazon with bogus product reviews.

You're absolutely right. The sad thing is, they think everyone is as stupid as they are.

I know buying stuff like this is risky on ebay, which is why I was careful about buying from sellers which lacked detail or had low resolution photos, however on this occasion the seller (digiorange) was just outright misleading and lied on the listing. They didn't deny it when I caught them out but at least they didn't put up a fight. The refund process was quick and smooth. Even if they wanted to argue it, they had nothing to fall back on.

The only reason I was looking at ebay was I didn't mind second-hand cards since I'm using them at home. Brand new cards from my suppliers are something like AUD$500 each and I needed at least 3 of them!

[Cyberdragon]

I can't believe someone would try to pull that crap with high end scientific equipment. We (nerds) aren't dumb, we'll find a way to had their asses to them.

[SantaClaw]

I bought a Intel X9000 cpu for a laptop of mine, I got a fake cpu in return, it didn't work, and I found no references to the markings anywhere... I even contacted Intel to see if they knew what it was.. They did not... lol

They also had a real Genuine cpu pictured on their store page.

Ebay refunded me after I proved what I got wasn't what was pictured.

 I ended up buying another one from a different ebay seller, it was thankfully genuine and is working to this day.

[OwO]

Why not just avoid ebay altogether and buy from some place with a proper dispute system? At least on aliexpress the seller can't stall you (when a dispute starts the purchase protection timer is stopped), and you will be able to write a negative review even if a long dispute process happened. I can't believe in this day and age ebay still hasn't got their shit together and implemented basic transaction semantics when their job is running an ecommerce platform.

[Monkeh]

Why not just avoid ebay altogether and buy from some place with a proper dispute system? At least on aliexpress the seller can't stall you (when a dispute starts the purchase protection timer is stopped), and you will be able to write a negative review even if a long dispute process happened. I can't believe in this day and age ebay still hasn't got their shit together and implemented basic transaction semantics when their job is running an ecommerce platform.

Well, for a start Aliexpress is bloody awful. Random captchas, failed logins, broken pages, useless search engine, and enough Chinglish to make finding products impossible..

E: Hell, it just triggered me again.. Signed in, went to my orders to check something, went to go to another page, "You have signed in to your account. You can now directly access your account." Who put this thing together?!

E2: Again, within a minute..

E2.5: AGAIN on the very next click..
E2.6: A fourth time..

[james_s]

I can't believe someone would try to pull that crap with high end scientific equipment. We (nerds) aren't dumb, we'll find a way to had their asses to them.

They do it because it works. For every person who files a claim and gets a refund, there are probably at least 10 more who either just cut their losses and forget about it or don't realize they got taken until after the window has expired. You just have to submit a claim right away if you are certain the item is fake.

I'd be curious to know what these network cards turn out to be. If they do have genuine Intel chips it's possible they're an OEM product rather than a branded retail item. In that case they may not necessarily be fake, but it's still shady to sell them using a picture of the real deal. I'd at least try one out to see if it works properly.

[Monkeh]

I'd be curious to know what these network cards turn out to be. If they do have genuine Intel chips it's possible they're an OEM product rather than a branded retail item. In that case they may not necessarily be fake, but it's still shady to sell them using a picture of the real deal. I'd at least try one out to see if it works properly.

Salvaged parts on, let's say, cost optimized reference boards. Apparently.

I can't fathom why you'd want to take the risk anyway when there's a glut of perfectly good, cheaper, not-remanufactured cards available.

[SantaClaw]

I have 540 transactions on Ebay, And of those, I have never felt scammed when everything has been said and done....
I've always got my money back or a new item if there has been any issues.

As for Aliexpress..  I have 60 orders on there

It can be a pain to get a hold of a person to talk to, but if/when you do, they can usually resolve any issue quickly..

I have incident though.. it's ongoing, I bought an item, and the seller is refusing to ship.. He says it's due to covid 19, and he want's ME to cancel..
Well, he is still 0ffering the same item with free shipping.. so I am dealing with that...

I don't know how many orders I have on banggood because they reset them after a site migration a few years ago, it's showing 43. Banggood is usually decent to deal with because they don't offer too much scam stuff, they require good pictures and bad items are removed relatively quickly.

I stopped using deal extreme. Prolly 50 or so orders there too.

I rarely have any issues shopping from overseas...

[exe]

What's the performance of this device? Does it match the original part?

As of Intel logo, etc, about 15 years or so ago I bought an intel NIC from a reputable distributor. There was absolutely no indication that it was produced by intel. May be only chip number, but no intel logo or something. It did use intel drivers. Performance-wise it was fine.

My best guess is, Intel either hired or acquired a company to did NICs for them. I think I saw raid controllers and other server equipment under Intel brand, that were not based on Intel components. But that was a very long time ago.

[SantaClaw]

I bought two Intel branded SAS controllers from China, brand new in box, brown paper boxes with no documentation or markings.

They've been working 24/7 for 5+ years

I guess it's a lottery what you get though.

[Haenk]

The shown card is obviously a DELL-OEM-card, most likely genuine Intel, but no Intel markings.
Look for yourself with the part# G18786-002 on Google.
So while you didn't receive what you ordered, the card you received is still technically "OK" and usable. Still a reason for a return, of course...

[james_s]

Salvaged parts on, let's say, cost optimized reference boards. Apparently.

I can't fathom why you'd want to take the risk anyway when there's a glut of perfectly good, cheaper, not-remanufactured cards available.

Based on what evidence?

They look like high quality PCBs with reputable brand components. I don't have one in my hands to look at it closely but from the pictures I see nothing that suggests they're salvaged parts or cheap knockoffs. I suspect they're simply unbranded OEM boards made specifically for a company that is using them in their products. I see no evidence to suggest there's anything wrong with them, but again you'd have to test one to know for sure.

What risk? Again on what proof are you basing the assertion that these are remanufactured? Maybe you're seeing something that I'm not or have personally inspected one of these boards?


*Edit: Just saw the post immediately above mine, Dell OEM, so yeah, precisely what I suspected, these are genuine cards manufactured for Dell, thus the lack of Intel retail markings. You see stuff like this in any big brand machines, Dell, Lenovo, HP etc.

[Monkeh]

Salvaged parts on, let's say, cost optimized reference boards. Apparently.

I can't fathom why you'd want to take the risk anyway when there's a glut of perfectly good, cheaper, not-remanufactured cards available.

Based on what evidence?

I did say apparently. Never said I believed it. The supposed evidence just looks like different manufacturers and OEM cards to me.

[Halcyon]

The shown card is obviously a DELL-OEM-card, most likely genuine Intel, but no Intel markings.
Look for yourself with the part# G18786-002 on Google.
So while you didn't receive what you ordered, the card you received is still technically "OK" and usable. Still a reason for a return, of course...

I've worked a lot with Dell and IBM OEM components and even then they still do retain Intel branding a lot of the time. I have a bunch of Dell NICs at home all with Intel logos. Even on Dell's own website, those cards are pictured with the Intel logo on the PCB.

It wasn't just the lack of branding which set off alarm bells:

- Components were physically in different locations to genuine Intel cards.
- The heatsink assembly was physically thinner and used entirely different mounting pins.
- The box was completely unmarked (no OEM part numbers or labels).
- The CD in the box just said "Network Card" in Intel colours. No branding or OEM part numbers.

I think it's unlikely with was a Dell OEM part. It just didn't look right to me and my gut feeling was that it was a fake Chinese card that emulated Intel. The fact that the seller never refuted that they were fakes/counterfeit was also a concern.

What's the performance of this device? Does it match the original part?

No idea, I didn't even bother to test it. I sent them straight back to the seller. Even if they did work as one would expect, how do you know what the chip is really doing? It could be anything from not supporting standard Ethernet features to even packet capture/analysis.

[Monkeh]

It couldn't possibly just be a different revision card to those you've seen..

Even if they did work as one would expect, how do you know what the chip is really doing? It could be anything from not supporting standard Ethernet features to even packet capture/analysis.

So why are you buying anything off eBay at all? If you're actually concerned about that (which is hilarious because why would they even bother?), what on earth are you doing buying from an auction site instead of directly from an authorised distributor?

[thm_w]

The shown card is obviously a DELL-OEM-card, most likely genuine Intel, but no Intel markings.
Look for yourself with the part# G18786-002 on Google.
So while you didn't receive what you ordered, the card you received is still technically "OK" and usable. Still a reason for a return, of course...

It looks like they either did remove the intel silkscreen from the masks, or scrub it manually with solvent/sandpaper, hard to tell from OPs photo.

https://www.dell.com/community/PowerEdge-Hardware-General/Duplicate-MAC-address-of-two-different-X520-DA2-NICs/td-p/6033749

[Halcyon]

It couldn't possibly just be a different revision card to those you've seen..

Even if they did work as one would expect, how do you know what the chip is really doing? It could be anything from not supporting standard Ethernet features to even packet capture/analysis.

So why are you buying anything off eBay at all? If you're actually concerned about that (which is hilarious because why would they even bother?), what on earth are you doing buying from an auction site instead of directly from an authorised distributor?

As explained above, these are for my home lab. Through my distrubuters, those cards are expensive and I was happy to settle for used cards. I ended up buying four genuine cards for almost the same price as one brand new one. I don't have thousands of dollars to throw around just for network cards. Just because I'm using them at home, it doesn't mean I should settle for anything less than the genuine product. I don't see why that's hilarious at all? There are plenty of legitimate sellers on ebay and I ended up sourcing them from an Australian company who does systems integration for data centres and IP video networks. They had some cards they pulled out of some servers which weren't being used anymore.

As I also mentioned, there was more than just the lack of Intel markings. All these small things didn't sit right with me and history says, my gut instinct is usually right, so I went with that.

[wraper]

It looks like they either did remove the intel silkscreen from the masks, or scrub it manually with solvent/sandpaper, hard to tell from OPs photo.

Nope, it isn't hard to tell. You cannot simply scrub silkscreen from solder mask without leaving some very noticeable signs of abuse. Solvent won't help removing it without solder resist damage.

[Monkeh]

I don't see why that's hilarious at all?

Thinking someone with the capacity to create a fake, functional 10GigE card which performs packet capture and analysis to collect data would use eBay as a method of distribution, is hilarious. And if they did create such a card to slip into the supply chain of real targets, that they'd be so sloppy as to remove logos (oohhh, but the copyright!) and otherwise provide clear external indication of a difference between the genuine article and their spyware, while going to all the effort of using the same silkscreen font, component identifiers, and locations, is rather amusing also..

The most likely explanation is these are from an excess production run of a revision you're not familiar with - probably because they swapped up to a newer chipset instead of using these cards. That can easily explain the heatsink and its mounting hardware differing in several ways, all of which are more likely than fake cards with, and I'll quote your, uhm, reference, here, 'rebolled' and 'fed and sealed back' controllers, or spyware devices.