Shopping for high-end CPU Thermal paste, you should all know “Thermal Grizzly(Violent Bear)” This brand, its Kryonaut is the designated product for many overclocking players. Recently, this German cooling brand encountered a costly fraud. They purchased raw materials from Chinese metal suppliers through the well-known e-commerce platform Alibaba. Unexpectedly, when they received the raw materials, they were not the copper and aluminum they originally ordered, but fake products that were adulterated or even directly disguised with steel. The total loss was about 40,000 euros (nearly NT$1.5 million).
Image source: der8auer
Thermal Grizzly purchased metal materials from China, but received fake copper-plated steel plates
For readers who are not familiar with Thermal Grizzly, here is a quick introduction.
Thermal Grizzly is a cooling material and water cooling equipment brand from Germany. Its products include CPU/GPU thermal paste, liquid metal thermal agent, and high-end cooling hardware such as graphics card water blocks. Among them, the Kryonaut series of thermal pastes are very well-known among the global PC gamer community and are often used by overclocking enthusiasts to test extreme performance.
The important person behind this brand is Roman Hartung, a well-known German overclocking player, nicknamed “der8auer”. He is not only a core member of Thermal Grizzly, but also has a large number of subscribers on his YouTube channel, where he often shares hardware modification content such as extreme overclocking. He personally explained the procurement fraud incident publicly on YouTube and admitted, “I am very embarrassed about this incident.” However, he still chose to make it public in the hope that others could learn from it.
Image source: der8auer
When Thermal Grizzly makes graphics card water blocks, it requires a large amount of copper plates and aluminum plates as raw materials. However, in recent years, the price and supply pressure of the European metal market have been high, making it difficult to obtain the required copper plates and aluminum plates at a reasonable cost. The company decided to switch to purchasing from China and find sellers through the world-renowned B2B procurement platform Alibaba.
Thermal Grizzly didn’t just find two random companies to place an order. der8auer said that they have deliberately spread the risk between two suppliers and selected sellers who appear to have many years of transaction records, complete platform information, and normal communication. The payment terms also adopt the practice of paying a 30% deposit in advance and paying the balance after shipment.
After the goods arrived in Germany by sea, the initial appearance inspection was normal. The size, weight and appearance of the plates all met the specifications:
Image source: der8auer
Thermal Grizzly also conducted further X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy analysis, a detection method that can accurately identify metal components. The results showed that the material was 100% pure copper, which was fully qualified:
Image source: der8auer
But something strange happened next, and the subsequent conductivity test results were abnormal:
Image source: der8auer
They decided to use a milling machine to further process the plate, but sparks were generated during the cutting process. Pure copper should not spark during processing:
Image source: der8auer
An engineer had an idea and took out a magnet, and the magnet actually attracted the plate. Pure copper itself is non-magnetic, which means that what they received was not copper at all, but a “copper-plated steel plate”. The outer layer was covered with a thin layer of copper, and the inner part was actually cheap steel:
Image source: der8auer
der8auer added that there were indeed a few real copper plates placed on the top layer, but the bottom ones were all fakes. This shows that the scammers also expected that buyers might randomly check and deliberately placed the genuine products in the most conspicuous position.
As for the batch of aluminum plates, they are also fake, and even more exaggerated. Only a few plates on the top are real, and a large number of steel plates are mixed in below, and they are even disguised by the gap and weight design:
Image source: der8auer
Adding up the two batches of goods, Thermal Grizzly suffered a total loss of about 40,000 euros, equivalent to about NT$1.5 million.
Roman admitted in the video that this experience was not just a loss of money for the company, but also included time, energy, and pressure on shipment progress and brand reputation. He also mentioned that one of the suppliers has stopped responding, and although there is still contact with the other, he is not optimistic about recovering the money, because if a German company wants to pursue such disputes cross-border in China, the chance of success is not high, and it may consume more time and cost.
Therefore, Thermal Grizzly is taking a more pragmatic approach at this stage, recycling some materials as scrap, trying to stop the bleeding, and then looking for available sources of raw materials again.
He also shared some suggestions
- Magnet testing should be done: For non-magnetic metals such as copper and aluminum, an ordinary magnet can quickly detect fakes. The operation is simple and the cost is extremely low. It should be listed as the first inspection when entering the warehouse.
- XRF detection is not enough: X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy analysis can only determine the composition of the material surface. If it is just coated with a layer of real metal on the outside, the instrument may still produce normal results. It is recommended to use conductivity testing, profile analysis and other cross-validation methods.
- Dispersing procurement does not mean spreading risks: Thermal Grizzly originally thought that finding two suppliers would reduce risks, but problems occurred with both suppliers. On platforms such as Alibaba, fraud techniques may be organized, and similar deception patterns may be circulated across multiple accounts.
- Make a small trial order before purchasing in large quantities: Confirm the quality with a small order first, and then place a large order after acceptance is correct. This is a safer approach, even if the cost is higher, it is worth it.
Full video:
Source: KOCPC Chinese