With the new fashion of buying cheaper products from Asia, Intel reminded users to buy products in official channels to ensure that the product is original, as there has been a recent surge in the sale of counterfeit CPUs, which usually supply much older processors with a sticker on the IHS that are not even compatible with the right socket.
This clarification came after several users tried to route these CPUs through the Intel RMA as if it was Intel’s fault that they bought a cheap CPU in an unofficial channel. The Blues pointed out that these processors had been deliberately modified and therefore their replacement policy did not apply, and also reminded us that we had to buy the products from authorized vendors to handle the warranty and, of course, to ensure an original product.
Unfortunately, there are many such cases, and there are more and more counterfeit products, from the alleged GTX 1080 Ti to the alleged GT 1030, and now a whole range of processors from both Intel and AMD.
To avoid these problems, buy from authorized places and preferably within your country.