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/37There 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.