Posted 4th April 1998 UK distributor Datrontech has warned that Far Eastern gangs are engaged in counterfeiting Pentium II and other processors and slipping them into the market. The organised rackets marked the chips at higher clock speeds, he confirmed.
Chips are easy to dispose of and to ship, because there s no duty on processors.
The scary thing with re-marking is that you can t tell the difference between counterfeits and the real thing. You just cannot tell. Davison said that the problem was rife in the days of the Pentium, and Intel took steps then to defend themselves against counterfeiting by etching details on processors and providing overspeed protection. He said dealers should be wary of buying product from other than authorised Intel distributors for these and for other reasons. He said that processors came from a variety of sources, including OEM overstocks, which ended up in the grey channel, through VAT frauds and through remarking as well.