topic Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay in Computers & Electronics

Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

rougebev — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:47:04 GMT

Hi.
Mick from Anna Bay Computers here. Just wanted to let the community know about all the counterfeit software for sale lately.
We decided to make a purchase to get some of this counterfeit software, so we can expose them as fakes. We bought Windows 7 Ultimate and Office 2007 Professional for $192.00. First Windows 7 Ultimate, in what looked like genuine packaging at a glance. Alarm bells started ringing as we removed the plastic to get a clearer look at the COA, the print is sub-standard on the package and COA, the metal strip is not interwoven into the paper and is silver not red and says Genuine not Our Passion. Then we opened the container and compared the Product Key Sticker against a Genuine Sticker and it is at least 50% different. To the disc's, as you can see in my video, very poor construction. The hologram is not built in to the plastic and is glued on and can be peeled away. We sent images of the products and COA's to Microsoft and they aggreed it was counterfeit software.
To top off our experiment we contacted the seller with the video in this article and got a refund no questions asked!!
So it's a case of buyer be aware, hope this helps make your Windows 7 purchase easier.

Links to videos me made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55qQES64Ps
Windows 7 Ultimatehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlEsZdwuGcM
Office 2007 Pro
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300425460082&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
Pictures of fake COA's on my advert for Windows 7 here

Cheers
Mick

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

abstractitems — Sun, 16 May 2010 02:05:30 GMT

Hi - the idea is to send both the suspect software and the seller ID to Microsoft....
If it is a high level pirated copy , then MS has been known to issue a genuine item to the hapless Buyer
As for the fate of the Seller....

What is also the rage at this time is the online distribution of unsupportrd Software from other regions such as US/Canada, UK etc
equally illegal for supported use in Asia-Pacific region

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

expressm3 — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:31:14 GMT

Hi - the idea is to send both the suspect software and the seller ID to Microsoft....
If it is a high level pirated copy , then MS has been known to issue a genuine item to the hapless Buyer
As for the fate of the Seller....

What is also the rage at this time is the online distribution of unsupportrd Software from other regions such as US/Canada, UK etc
equally illegal for supported use in Asia-Pacific region

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

expressm3 — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:46:56 GMT

Hello,

I've been through this process and i thiink more action needs to be taken, why is ebay allowing these items to be sold?... and also why is Microsoft not taking more action.
When we hire DVD movies we are forced to watch about pirated copys and you can be put in jail or fined large amount money by both FBI or Australian government.
I've sent copy's and photo's to Microsoft and also rang Microsoft also informed the police because it is an criminal offence in most states to sell fake products.
At the end of the day ebay should not be letting these so called ebay stores to keep on selling fake stuff.i've informed them got an refund but in the process the store kept on trading why's the justice ??

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

moonlyte — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:54:58 GMT

A mate of mine bought fake Windows 7, he sent it to Microsoft, and they gave him a genuine copy, and investigated the seller.

It took months, but the seller eventually completely stopped selling Windows(and eventually all Microsoft software), but continued to sell hardware in his store.

Microsoft is not interested in shutting the seller down completely, they are only interested in stopping the seller from selling fake Windows. I think behind the scenes the seller got taken to court by Microsoft and fined a large sum of $$$, as is normally the case.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

creasedpage — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:29:51 GMT

to be honest your an idiot if you buy any windows
from here
go to a retail shop and buy it
is my best suggestion to
dont be a noob and think your getting a bargain i
if it look to good to be true then it is
cheap chinese rubbish

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

9792alston — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:30:18 GMT

Cant see what all the fuss is about.And do you really think that buying a pirated disk and being mortified at the quality of the hologram, and then dobbing the seller in to MS, that the world trade in pirated software is going to fold up its collective tents and go away? Helooooo!

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

the3coopers — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:37:48 GMT

I've been through this process and i thiink more action needs to be taken, why is ebay allowing these items to be sold
...
At the end of the day ebay should not be letting these so called ebay stores to keep on selling fake stuff.i've informed them got an refund but in the process the store kept on trading why's the justice ??

Are you saying that ebay should personally check and verify the authenticity of each of the 7 to 10 million items that are listed each day?

It's not practical. Ebay states quite clearly in the User Agreement:

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT EBAY IS NOT INVOLVED IN THE ACTUAL TRANSACTION BETWEEN BUYERS AND SELLERS.

AS A RESULT, EBAY HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE QUALITY, SAFETY OR LEGALITY OF ITEMS OR CONTENT POSTED BY MEMBERS ON OUR SITE, THE TRUTH OR ACCURACY OF LISTINGS, THE ABILITY OF SELLERS TO SELL ITEMS OR THE ABILITY OF BUYERS TO BUY ITEMS.

WE CANNOT ENSURE AND DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT A MEMBER OR BROWSER OF OUR SITE WILL ACTUALLY COMPLETE A TRANSACTION OR ACT LAWFULLY IN USING OUR SITE.

.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

expressm3 — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:51:36 GMT

For your information when you report an fake seller to ebay and the police, it is there duty of care to inform everyone involved and close down the fake sellers and thus take the necessary legal action, thus the fake sellers i've dealt with have landed large fines and also prison, as i say please report anything suspicious or unusual activity on ebay, stolen goods or fake goods imported to crimestoppers 1800333000 or Australian Customs 1800 06 1800
i hope this helps those you get ripped off the more we report the better the outcome.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

9792alston — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:01:16 GMT

What do you mean by a "fake seller" If you mean someone who sells copies of Microsoft software, please explain who, except microsoft, suffers in any way. And why the hysterics over pirated software anyway.? And I would like to ask you and the other software vigilantes one question: Have you, even once, copied and burnt a software cd or dvd? Or have you, even once, downloaded a song from a P2P programme? Because if you have, you are as much a so called criminal as those "fake sellers you all get so sniffy about.
Think about it.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

moonlyte — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:47:00 GMT

please explain who, except microsoft, suffers in any way.

It's clear that you have not given much thought before asking this question.

Everyone in the demand and supply chains suffer.

Retailers suffer. A seller peddling illegitimate software for 10-50% of what it costs retail takes business away from retailers who have spent their hard earned money to buy legitimate stock. The fake seller has no right to own stock, but can produce and profit from countless fakes.

Illegitimate software(or anything else) means less business for manufacturers and distributors of legitimate products.

Buyers suffer. Pirated software serial keys eventually get blocked, and the software stops working, or stops allowing updates, or the manufacturer won't provide support for the pirated software.

If you call people who care about piracy "software vigilantes", then consider yourself a piracy advocate.

I am outta here.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

9792alston — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:09:50 GMT

Yes,
I can see your point. Retailers of genuine software probably do lose a certain amount of business. But at the end of the day retail is a price driven industry. People (myself included) will always buy the cheaper version of the same article. And BTW, have you ever copied and burnt a software cd or dvd? Or downloaded a song off a P2P programme? I cant help but notice the silence that ensues whenever I ask this question of the self righteous software vigilante mob.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

fredoz — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 22:08:04 GMT

I bought W7 Ultimate 32 & 64 about a year ago, seemed OK to me, registered OK with MS. Now just recently I have a black screen on start up with messages about illegal copies and so on. While I can't find the original information about the seller, I recognised the auction page layout, it is still happening. I have reported these listing to eBay, the first few were removed, the follow up reportings have been ignored.

Usually sellers have little or no past sales record, but one enterprising seller even set up feedback.

After reading above messages I believe eBay is not doing enough to prevent these forgery sellers. As such I believe they are being party to the offences and should be charged along with the originating criminals.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

rogevibe — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:50:54 GMT

Some of them are early "Engineering samples" not for home user - technically legit but not licencee transferable and/or now can not be activated.

I got stung via another auction site - no refund from the Seller , just lame excuses

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

mikegreenhill — Mon, 26 May 2014 12:34:14 GMT

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to post here.

It's obviously happening again.

I'm restarting this thread in the hope others will search and avoid an obvious scam.

Windows 7 is presumably popular due to XP no longer being supported. I've just purchased WIN 7 ULT (Brand New - Unopened - Haha). Box had been shrink wrapped to look new but the security seal was broken. Hologram was glued to disks and peeled off easily. You can guess the rest.

There are regular sellers popping up in "Hobart" but actually based in Malaysia offering "NEW -Unopene" Microsoft products and huge discounts. All user details are similar: Active on Ebay from around October/November 2011. 1 or 2 positive reviews (initally) followed by a quick sucession of very positive reviews since May 2014. Payment is always Paypal - with a 3 day turn around and 8-14 days delivery.

My package originated from China, which would explain the delivery times.

I will obviously following this up and will post any reults here.

Mike

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

rogevibe — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 22:09:42 GMT

The "trans-pacific rip off" whereby MS stand-alone software is doubled in price compared with the States , just because it is sold in Australia , adds to Buyer desperation for cost effective solutions

(The pricing will be interesting when we are forced to purchase their cars from c 2017 )

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

jason.campbellxx — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 12:37:02 GMT

Buy from retail store.

But it's good stuff for reporting the seller, but what do you know, the source needs to be stopped, not the effects. Get the source. 1-2 sources, thousands of sellers.

If I were M$ I would go for thousands of sellers, each to court, make mega buck$, keep source alive. More money 🙂

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

9792alston — Mon, 20 May 2019 03:16:17 GMT

Welcome to the real world.

Re: Counterfeit Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay

davewil1964 — Mon, 20 May 2019 03:48:05 GMT

You have replied to an EIGHT YEAR old post. About obsolete, unsupported software.

Well done.