'As DRAM prices continue to rise, protecting product authenticity has become increasingly important': Corsair changes Vengeance DDR5 packaging in bid to deter scams
As memory continues to get more and more expensive, scammers are further incentivised to get their hands on it. In an effort to prevent this, Corsair is swapping the packaging of its Vengeance lineup of DDR5 memory for a see-through plastic clamshell so you can gaze more easily on its pricey innards.
Corsair recently published an update explaining the change and the rationale behind it (via VideoCardz).
The company wrote, "As DRAM prices continue to rise, protecting product authenticity has become increasingly important. That’s why we have updated our DRAM packaging, focusing on security and transparency while retaining environmental responsibility."
Corsair says the new packaging is made from recycled plastic and will keep static charges away, which should serve to protect the precious payload from frying in transit. That's a win-win in my book.
As well as this change, Corsair says, "To further improve protection, the packaging includes a tamper-evident belly label that tears when opened, making any attempt to reseal the package immediately visible. With the current value of DRAM kits, this added layer of security helps protect customers and retailers from return fraud."
We've seen instances of memory fraud, including with sealed boxes, recently, presumably due to the rising cost of memory. In December, one gamer opened a sealed box of DDR5 (or more accurately, what they thought was DDR5) only for it to be two sticks of DDR2. Ouch.
The benefits of swapping to this new packaging are two-fold. The first is that you can literally see the RAM in there as you pick it up from a retailer, meaning you can verify what you're buying (previously, the packaging only had a little window on the back). The new packaging has the memory fit snugly in place, too, making it easy to verify from a distance.
The second benefit of the change is that, being a plastic clamshell with a seal around it, it's hard to get open and mess with, without signs of it being tampered with. That's to say, even if a scammer could almost perfectly imitate a stick of Vengeance memory, it would be very difficult to get everything open and replaced without a potential buyer or retailer noticing.
I've busted out some of the older Corsair packaging in the PC Gamer office, and the biggest deterrent of tampering I could find is a sticker at the top holding the edge of the box down. This is a decent way of stopping scammers from getting in, but I'd hazard a guess it would be easier to get in without notice than the new plastic shell.
To add to this change, Corsair says it will be making box-packaged memory safer, too, by reintroducing a security label. It's a small change but a welcome one. It's just a shame that the catalyst for this change is memory becoming nearly unobtainable for anyone on a budget.