Intel isn’t best pleased today at having to announce to customers that at least one counterfeit version of its Core i7-920 processor made its way into the US market, while adding that it’s trying to determine how many more are out there.

PC World picked up a story on how, over the weekend, a forum member of hardware site HardOCP reported that they had received a counterfeit processor from Newegg, an online seller of computers and components. Instead of a processor, the customer in question found a fake processor and a plastic mold of a heat sink and fan.

In a brief statement, Intel acknowledged the existence of the fake chip and said it was investigating.”Intel has been made aware of the potential for counterfeit i7-920 packages in the marketplace and is working to identify how many and/or where they are being sold,” said Nick Jacobs, an Intel spokesman. “The examples we have seen are not Intel products but are counterfeits.”

The PC World report notes that the fake processor, sold as a standalone or ‘boxed’ chip, came with an instruction manual comprised of blank pages, while a sticker on the outside of the box misspelled the word ‘socket’ as ‘sochet’, indeed there was apparently several incorrect spellings on the packaging.

It was not immediately clear how the counterfeit chip ended up for sale at Newegg, though when notified of the problem, it apparently shipped a genuine processor to the affected customer.

Have any online Del Boys sold you some dodgy goods? Tell us your horror stories.