You hear about theset things one every so often, but to what extend this is happing, who knows. This time AMD falls victom of Counterfeit AMD APUs being sold on Amazon UK. Sellers fitted old AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ processors with a new heatspreader to trick consumers into thinking they got the AMD A8-7600. 

The counterfeit processors were sold in AMD A8-7600 packages, or at least decent forgeries as the buyer on Amazon didn't notice it was a fake just by looking at the box.

The APUs quickly reveal themselves as counterfit as they are not pin compatible so attempting to install this incompatible CPU into your motherboard will likely damage it. A review on Amazon indicates the company handled the issue by sending a replacement CPU to one affected user.

AMD responded that they're working with Amazon and local law enforcement to investigate the issue:

"It is apparent that this isolated incident is not related in any way to AMD's manufacturing or packaging, however AMD takes any reports of product tampering very seriously. As part of our ongoing efforts to help ensure consumers and businesses are sold only genuine AMD processors, we thoroughly investigate these extremely rare incidents in an effort to determine the source of the altered products, and consider all available legal remedies - including both civil and criminal prosecution - against persons found to have engaged in fraudulent actions affecting AMD products. 

We are working in close cooperation with Amazon and the local enforcement authorities to conclude this incident quickly and ensure that the rigorous quality and reliability standards that AMD is known for are maintained. In addition, while AMD already implements extensive security measures to ensure the authenticity of our products, we are currently evaluating further measures to implement additional security measures for maximum future support."

Amazon UK Selling Counterfeit AMD APUs