The global shortage of chips has become increasingly serious, which has caused widespread concern among industry experts earlier that it is only a matter of time before the market is flooded with fakes. However, while unscrupulous merchants found new "gold mines", the sales of X-ray detectors that detect fake chips also doubled year-on-year.

The current chip shortage has spread to most industries that rely on electronic components, from basic household appliances such as microwave ovens and refrigerators to the automotive industry. Foreign media ZDNet reported earlier that for some companies, this means finding other ways to reserve chips or shut down production lines. In other words, the current environment provides an excellent opportunity for unscrupulous traders.

In addition to general consumer goods, chip parts are also facing a crisis of proliferation of fakes.

According to the Wall Street Journal, BotFactory, a 3D printer manufacturer used to manufacture electronic parts, was unable to obtain microchips and finally chose to purchase the chips on AliExpress, a subsidiary of Alibaba. However, the goods on arrival were packaged in plastic. Anti-static packaging for non-common chips.

Although the platform seller claims that the chips sold are legitimate, Andrew Ippoliti, chief software engineer at BotFactory, suspects that these parts are partly fake. There was no news from the seller after the company raised questions.

Kristal Snider, vice president of ERAI, which oversees bad behavior in the electronic supply chain, said that almost every day there are new complaints, including remittance fraud incidents from buyers in more than 40 countries.

These unscrupulous vendors used search engine advertisements to induce victims to buy products, and they disappeared after receiving the remittance. ERAI has now flagged dozens of high-risk websites, many of which are headquartered in Hong Kong, China.

Industry insiders and experts say that chip fraud incidents are often underestimated because the victim companies are unwilling to publicly admit that they have been defrauded, and it is difficult for criminal litigation channels to provide justice, especially in transnational cases.

Before the chip shortage is eased, fakes may still exist. Chip experts said that many buyers, in order to avoid the potential risk of counterfeit goods, improve their detection capabilities by themselves. In response to this situation, Bill Cardoso, CEO of Creative Electin Inc, which produces X-ray machines that detect fake chips, said that sales of the $90,000 detector this year have doubled from last year.

Dane Reynolds, vice president of electronic operations at Astute, an electronic parts distributor, said that five testing instruments have been purchased recently. As customer testing demand surges, the company is analyzing more parts to find more defective products.