Episode 13: Unusable Graphics Cards and a Win in the Sneaker Industry

Tom’s hardware review ran an article this week about a chinese pc repair shop that received four of these, and upon closer examination, three of them were fake and unrepairable and unusable. They had modified older cards and in some cases attached other parts to give the appearance of the 4090 unit but the fake one was still inoperable which you would have discovered the moment you plugged it in.

StockX has reported it rejected nearly $10 million worth of counterfeit sneakers last year as part of a comprehensive report outlining its efforts on verification, fraud prevention and anti-counterfeiting in 2024. The resale platform's "Brand Protection and Consumer Trust" report consists of 19 pages detailing the measures it takes to ensure it delivers authentic product to consumers. Over the course of 2024, StockX rejected more than 30,000 sneakers alone suspected of being counterfeit. Suspected fakes are the second most common reason for products being rejected, accounting for 22 percent of total products rejected. 32 percent of items were rejected for defects, while 12 percent were found to be used and another 7 percent came in a damaged box.

We are following this new case of Audi AG v. CarParts.com, Inc., 1:25-cv-04940 (S.D.N.Y.), in which Audi asserts that CarParts.com is selling copies of their goods using their trademarks, including proprietary OEM numbers. We think it’s also interesting that the EU Court of Justice also found that selling grills without the Audi logo, but that have a cutout that fits the logo, is also trademark infringement.

Quick news hits:

Another fake money scheme in Florida, where four men obtained $100 fake bills made by bleaching $10 bills and printing the $100 bill over the same material. You could still see Hamilton’s face in the watermark, which tipped off a grocery cashier.

Labubu dolls are a hot item, which means counterfeits are being made and China just shut down a factory making them. As a response the other factories making fakes appear to have shut down operations and gone dark to avoid getting caught.

Back on the fake stamps beat, the US Postal Service filed and obtained a temporary restraining order against two shipping companies New York and Los Angeles who are accused of using fake USPS shipping labels to ship merchandise for Chinese customers through the US Postal service…for years.