Sounds legit :confused:

As with any of these deals, people try to justify the (possible) dodgy software with excuses. A little investigation into this and this is what you would find :-

Company :-
AA Printing Machinery & IT Equipment Limited

Company Number :-
09319995

VAT Registration :-
GB 225757884

Telephone :-
+44 (0) 161 818 7387 or
+44 (0) 749 223 6771

Directors :-
Mr Ashraf Al Saadieh - DOB July 1970 (154a St. Albans Avenue,Ashton-Under-Lyne. OL6 8TU)
Tamer Samir Abobakr GHATAS - DOB Jan 1981 (98 Wellesley Court, Maida Vale, London. W9 1RQ

Head Office Address :-
154a St Albans Avenue
Ashton-Under-Lyne
England
OL6 8TU
Photo of business head office (bear in mind this place is turning over £100,000 in used/disposed IT equipment, oh it looks like a flat above an Indian Restaurant):-


Warehouse Address :-
Unit 96B
North Western Street
Manchester
M12 6JL


So on the face of it the business seems to be filing correct documentation with Companies house, VAT and LTD registered.

According to seller history (not always accurate), they have sold - Total Revenue: £324,165.10 + £0.00 shipping in the last 30 days.

But when you factor in common sense... they have sold 34000 **SCRAP** Office 2016 licences. Do you really believe that 34000 PC's in the entire country have been scrapped that had **SINGLE** Office 2016? Bear in mind that any company with more than 50 PC's will be covered under Microsoft VL agreement or typically use Office 365 enterprise.

Regards
Flea

i bought a windows 7 pro key about 5 years ago and it's still working so please stop grandstanding ..

This is dodgy beyond belief.

Just a heads up, anyone who's employer uses Office should be eligible to get Office 2016 (Win+Mac) for £9.95

I know it's not for everyone but a lot of people should be able to get it.

Microsoft Office HUP

Sounds legit :confused:

Last time I bought 3 and all remain working perfectly. no reason why they shouldn't work again!

Does Windows 10 automatically have MS Office pro? What if I want the broken computer? (  "Therefore, this sale includes the original broken beyond economical repair computer and motherboard").

33000 sold !!!!!
Thats nearly £200,000

I can't see these keys staying active on your PC for very long.

How would you download it if you've not got the disc?

So you get the licence key and the broken computer the software is for... plus it says:

LICENSE KEY FOR ONLY ONE COMPUTER and CAN BE REUSED ON THE SAME MACHINE

So, it cannot be used on any computer other than the same machine (which is broken). Pointless purchase.

From SCRAP PC! :neutral_face:

where is the software d/l from that you apply this key to ?

I got everything on my email. Inc link to download

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/ORIGINAL-OFFICE-PROFESSIONAL-PLUS-2016-32-64BIT-PRO-PLUS-LICENSE-KEY-SCRAP-PC-/222450258640?hash=item33cb1192d0%3Ag%3A3%7E0AAOSwc-tY1OD6&_trkparms=pageci%253A33749d8b-1230-11e7-88a8-74dbd1809f87%257Cparentrq%253A0b02dda015b0a5e18108675efff32066%257Ciid%253A1

Only £3.85

Ebay item no- 222450258640. ONLY £3.85

Cold

Yes that's true after 3-4 months it says non-genuine version and won't work TRUST ME DO NOT BUY I had previous experience with this seller I bought windows 10 and this one after 3-4 months says invalid

Just be aware that these keys will not be legitimate. If you are ok with that then even if they do get revoked after a few months it will still be cheaper to keep buying these cheap ones than forking out for a genuine office pro licence. I'd seriously look at just subscribing to office 365 though as you can get reasonable deals on that quite often and at least you know it is legit then.

Given how legit these keys are, you might as well not pay at all.

:man:

Purchased.

Don't know why.

How about windows 10 Pro for £2.39
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-WINDOWS-10-PRO-32-64BIT-OEM-ORIGINAL-LICENSE-KEY-SCRAP-PC-/222450187926?hash=item33cb107e96:g:VZIAAOSwsW9YwQ1L

WILL STOP WORKING AFTER 29 DAYS WHEN THE SOFTWARE CALLS BACK TO THE MS SERVERS.
You know its a scam, do you MS would allow their prize software to be sold so cheaply. That said it would be cheaper repurchasing than buy the official software. Go with 365 for a fiver a month.

This seller must be rich beyond his wildest dreams. How can he get away with making hundreds of thousands of pounds profit from dodgy sales?

This work on office for Apple iPads?

just a word of warning, i have previously purchased office and windows keys from ebay and they got killed after a few days.
they caused me.massive inconvenience.

I did also have good experiences from another seller

I bought this from the exact seller on 9. Jan. 2017 and it still works fine - but I paid £9.99 for it so this is a bargain.

its all a massive con, just using a key generator to make keys and idiot can do it for free with KMS activator.

I would prefer a physical licence in a case such as this to prove its genuine. I wouldn't be arsed if its from a scrap machine as its a simple license transfer but how do you know......

This is dodgy beyond belief.

Just a heads up, anyone who's employer uses Office should be eligible to get Office 2016 (Win+Mac) for £9.95

I know it's not for everyone but a lot of people should be able to get it.

Microsoft Office HUP

I bought an MS office key from an eBay seller. Tried using it with my official MS Office disc and it would not work. The seller said I had to download Office from a link he gave me, and all was fine after that. I think the Office software that I downloaded came from the hard drive of a damaged PC, and the license key must have been for use on that PC. Been using it for a year with no problems.

Just by way of reply to the posts above, yes OEM licenses are for manufacturers to use on new PC's. However, Microsoft is aware of the resale of OEM keys and has not taken steps to prevent it. If Microsoft really wanted to, it could put pressure on the sellers to stop selling keys or threaten to sue. There are plenty of blogs and magazine articles referring to Microsoft turning a blind eye to the practice, probably because it represents a very small loss if revenue.
On the rare occasions when an OEM key fails to register, it may be because the seller has not fully decommissioned the damaged PC. So just buy another key for a fiver. Two attempts at using an OEM key are unlikely to fail, and you will save a bundle of cash instead of buying the official key.
By the way, there is no EBay protection for items downloaded from a seller's web site. EBay protection only applies to physical items delivered to your door. If you by with PayPal you will have some limited protection for a download.
Linux Mint is a good alternative to Windows, and comes with free office suite and other excellent software (as do the other Linux and Ubuntu OS's). However, Linux does take a but if getting used to, so anyone only confident with Windows OS should maybe give it a miss. I revived an old WindowsVista laptop with Linux and it now goes like a train.

If you use Office at work and your employer is part of the Microsoft Home User Programme, you can get Office 2016 for £10 (one off fee no subscription).

I bought Office 2013 a few years ago for £10 through Microsoft's official HUP. Works fine for me. No need to waste money upgrading.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/software/how-get-office-2016-for-9-95-home-use-program-3628911/

in the real world, it'll be a version of office to use the OEM key as opposed to a RETAIL disc, or you can go via https://setup.office.com

Last week a bloke in the pub offered me a 65" oled tv for £50. Did I post it on here? No!

If you're going to use a clearly illegal key - why not just go on a torrent site and do it for free? Giving money to criminals won't help anyone... :man:

EU law lets you resell software keys.

Not quite, it depends on what Microsoft Package your Employer has, I don't recall the exact name (it used to be Software Assurance, but I think it changed with Office 365) but its the one where the employer pays for software and a support package to stay with the current office version. If your employer does not have that support agreement in place then you cannot get the HUP deal.

It DOES cost your employer more, as they have to pay maintenance fees so some employers just buy a set version and support rather than the Software Assurance part, and only upgrade office very few versions rather than every time a new one is release. It will all come down to the cost to the employer to do an upgrade, verses the benefit they gain from being on the latest version and allowing employees to have the same software at home, with potential productivity gains.

Only allows you to resell RETAIL software keys. This is not Retail.

Same reason it's illegal to sell your playstation network or xbox live account. It's non-transferrable in or outside the EU

these were 99p on eBay about 2 years ago.
i can get them 20p each!
I ever bothered but now i might re think :wink:

Not sure why people are so worried about using these keys. I bought one (not the one in this post) and was given a download link but decided to download direct from Microsoft. It checks the key and comes up with the version of office as applicable and installs directly on to PC fully activated.

Here we go again... :smirk:

I use my works Office365 licence. Only needed to validate my domain details and MS let me download onto my surface and desktop.

I'm not I bought one from THIS SELLER and after 29 days it phones back and STOPS WORKING! M$ are not dummies!

Using this key will not make your copy of Office Legal.
It is against the terms of the license.
It is literally just as illegal as going to a torrent site and downloading Office with a software crack...
- hero9989

I'm not encouraging piracy... But knowing how legitimate this is, you're better get it free yourself. And you can find way to make it last longer than this one. I had that on my previous laptop for years without ever having trouble. Then my uni now offer office for free. So I now use that

Dont understand this.
You are putting code into microsoft website, who confirm it and provide link to download.

Why would it "phone home" after a month? Why would microsoft not detect the key as incorrect when you enter it to first download.

Have seen it in the past with offline keys but with this microsoft check it before download.

They check that it is a valid key. Not that you are eligible to use it. If I use a student key in. Doesn't make it legal. I'm not a student so I'm not eligible to use the key. Just cos they might never find out - doesn't make it legal.

Also - it 'phone's home' after a month because that's how long the trial lasts. It doesn't even need a key until that point.

Im not talking of the legality of using the key.

Just wondering why microsoft confirm key as valid and allow a download but after a month when software reports back key it is then invalid.
Why would they not detect it as invalid at first input.

Not saying its incorrect, just trying to logically work out why so many people have been using for years and also people where it had been revoked after a month.

So basically it's not...

I don't think the website actually talks to their server the same. There is a pattern to MS keys. The website uses this pattern to determine what software that key is for. It doesn't actually validate it until it's installed and it talks to the authentication server. Where it then checks for other installs that have been registered on their servers, etc.

I should add - if a license has 5 installs allowed - and the seller uses 0. the first 5 buyers will be authenticated on the MS server. Any more will fail. But they will still be able to use the key to download the software.

Thanks, good explanation.

It checks the keys that have been entered, bit like Norton used to do years ago, it would work for so long, usually 29 days sometimes 58 days then check the keys again, the scammers on ebay are sending out the keys and too many will be registered and the key will be cancelled. You will see the feedback is all positive because people try it, see that it works and give good feedback then 4/8 weeks from now they get the red bar saying activation failed.

Probably MSDN/bizspark/action pack keys, setup a dev company, get a free bizspark licence, sell keys, make £££, quite easy to do and some keys go for a fair bit.

I think its time to stop kidding ourselves and whip this one out..

Why not, I'd have taken a couple.

Doesn't it also require activation when it's installed?

That's actually completely unrelated.

If anyone clicks on the link to download from any site except MS and it really is a cracked copy then I would suggest that they never use that same computer for any banking or other confidential work because the cracked copy will almost certainly contain a trojan - anyone who has ever investigated cracked software will totally understand how it is cracked, and that doesn't involve anything so simple as an OEM serial number - it normally involves rewriting the setup files - just run an anti-virus program on it first

Please post link?

And receipt?

Wouldn't be much point of providing a serial and cracked software. It'll be what watson44 said, the OEM serial wouldn't work with the Retail disk.

i personally wouldn't buy any of these keys and not because they are cheap.
i love buying cheap but this is well fishy and someone is stealing from Microsoft big time. i know this is not the first time it's happened in history.
someone just created a keygenerator and they are making big bucks on selling illegal keys to people.
I'm actually surprised that eBay doesn't do anything against these dodgy sellers. but of course they are making more money too.

just imagine..they are selling for 5.99..paying eBay and PayPal and still making money on it

No ffs

I thought ...."What a bargain"...then thought .."I wonder how many letters I do actually write?"... 3, in the last year. Everything else by email. Scary!!

They will if they get reported but the seller can just open up another account with another disposable email address faster than they get reported and shutdown.

Its Ebays responsibility as well and Microsoft should persecute these sellers.
Ive asked Microsoft and they said £5.99 seems too cheap.

This is very telling in the description part:
"If you need an invoice message me BEFORE you buy, no invoices issued after purchase!"
Wonder why??

£3.85 at other seller.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ORIGINAL-OFFICE-PROFESSIONAL-PLUS-2016-32-64BIT-PRO-PLUS-LICENSE-KEY-SCRAP-PC/262908419572

Item location: Berlin, Germany

Indeed, digital delivery by email is likely to take a couple of nano seconds longer. Poor deal.

i said that as there is an Ebay.de in Germany...why would anyone sell keys from Germany in the Uk?
it could happen but its just suspicious thats all
nothing to do with nanoseconds.

Thought I'd check the sellers Head Office on Google Streetview
and no I'm not making this up :confused:

looks like a well established business:-)

He's basically using a keygen from a random torrent and selling the keys... anybody can do it but few sell them due to the serious consequences of being caught... you know, like a massive multi million pound fine and maybe prison time, no biggie.

If anyone actually thinks these are legit then they are deluded.

It smells a lot. If genuine office wouldn' work then the version you downloaded from seller was cracked. Not very clever as person who cracked software may also added something nice to it too (potentially loaded with viruses or adware). Be careful downloading any software from unknown sources!

Probably an MSDN key. When the account is discovered all keys will stop working, not bad profit when an account costs around £1000...

doesn't matter where someone sells from, UK can be scam too, for £3.85 you can't go wrong, even it it only worked for 3 months then you buy another.

To all of those people saying it's legit or it's OEM it's not, Office Professional Plus is a version only available to Volume License customers i.e. big companies with a licensing agreement, part of which is that they can move the licenses to new computers when they replace old machines. There's not a snowballs chance in hell these are legit licenses.

"Enter your organization's program code"?

I can absolutely guarantee this is NOT a legitimate OEM license - Office OEM for under £5.99 - REALLY>?

"YOU WILL GET A BROKEN MOTHERBOARD THAT COMES WITH THE OEM KEY AS REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH eBAY POLICY OF OEM SOFTWARE."
:confused:

As with any of these deals, people try to justify the (possible) dodgy software with excuses. A little investigation into this and this is what you would find :-

Company :-
AA Printing Machinery & IT Equipment Limited

Company Number :-
09319995

VAT Registration :-
GB 225757884

Telephone :-
+44 (0) 161 818 7387 or
+44 (0) 749 223 6771

Directors :-
Mr Ashraf Al Saadieh - DOB July 1970 (154a St. Albans Avenue,Ashton-Under-Lyne. OL6 8TU)
Tamer Samir Abobakr GHATAS - DOB Jan 1981 (98 Wellesley Court, Maida Vale, London. W9 1RQ

Head Office Address :-
154a St Albans Avenue
Ashton-Under-Lyne
England
OL6 8TU
Photo of business head office (bear in mind this place is turning over £100,000 in used/disposed IT equipment, oh it looks like a flat above an Indian Restaurant):-


Warehouse Address :-
Unit 96B
North Western Street
Manchester
M12 6JL


So on the face of it the business seems to be filing correct documentation with Companies house, VAT and LTD registered.

According to seller history (not always accurate), they have sold - Total Revenue: £324,165.10 + £0.00 shipping in the last 30 days.

But when you factor in common sense... they have sold 34000 **SCRAP** Office 2016 licences. Do you really believe that 34000 PC's in the entire country have been scrapped that had **SINGLE** Office 2016? Bear in mind that any company with more than 50 PC's will be covered under Microsoft VL agreement or typically use Office 365 enterprise.

Regards
Flea

you should work for the CIA :smile:
youve done a very good investigation!
i bet anything that Microsoft doesn't know as much as you've found.

Not a bad little scam / earner. I could pay off my mortgage in a few months and take it easy for the rest of my days!

I see you point and it is impressive research but i was thinking more like,"Now that is a person with certain skills but too much time on their hands" myself :smiley:

i bet this is only part of the story..you will find lots of these dodgy sellers on ebay selling these keys

its impressive anyhow!

the easiest way to check the key is via Microsoft website ( https://www.office.com/setup ) or just give them a call, the ebay seller do resell the same key, I have reported let see what ebay will do.

based on feedback:
Seller responded:

The seller don't know the difference, the trial software can be downloaded and used for 30 days, after is required the license to use, he does sell the illegal license not the link to the Microsoft website.

How do you know I did not find the information out while in the course of my normal duties.... or maybe I am just between assignments....

**winks**

Regards
Flea

I believed you.
I trust my instincts:-)

Just checked with MS - not legit - surprise, surprise ...

Actually i was gonna ask someone to check it like that but youve done it in advance.
Thank you Sir.
Did you tell them you had bought it from Ebay?

I gave them the link but they didn't seem too bothered - very strange - they said that the version the seller was selling was a special edition which requires a different link to normal - I suppose they rely so heavily on their servers doing the checking work for them that they don't bother following up on things like this, no even if it's in the UK - I think I'll set up a business like this for myself; if those geezers can earn themselves nearly a quarter of a million pounds in a few days by selling dodgy software then I'll give it a go too!!!!

They say the difficult part is to earn the first million. You have to do it somehow and after that you can shout from the rooftops that you are doing everything legally.
Many people who are mega rich now have done it like that.
Personally this is not the path i would chose!..im still naive and believe to do things the right way:-)

Any windows software can contain a virus or malware so dont really see your point.

The sellers usually say activate within 6 days so that makes it dodgy lol, but technically if they do activate they will always work once activated but if you try to ever reinstall the keys will probably have been blacklisted

Did you really mean to say this? Do you understand how wrong your response is? I would suggest that you don't understand enough about malware to be in charge of a computer

Yes I really meant to say this. Any windows based executable file is a virus or malware risk. Obvioulsly the risk increases depending on where the file originated.

Not everyone only downloads mainstream software.
When you are flashing devices with open source roms etc every file is a security risk and hence you take precautions be it antivirus, antimalware and firewall software.

Why was my response so wrong? Should any windows based executable not be treated as a possible threat?

Despite your previous comments, you sound a reasonable person but you must realise that there are safe places to download and there are unsafe places to download. And, even if you want to use usenet or torrents to get your software, I am sure that you recognise that the setup files will only be safe if they are downloaded from the original source (and virus checked preferably by VirusTotal), usenet or torrents should only be used for serials or a keygen run on a sandboxed computer.

Yes agree with that. My first post was probably not put across very well.
I meant every download has the risk of virus or malware, precautions can be taken to minimise this.

Gave up on pirated software years ago, tend to avoid torrents these days.

Do download a lot of roms, installers and open source software. A lot of this comes from zip files on upload sites which comes at a risk.

The links provided were hosted on an upload site. Id look at the site providing the link, is it trustworthy? Comments on the link, any warnings? Is there anywhere safer to download? Virus total URL search. Id run a virus scan, malware bytes scan and have zone alarm running.

Downloading is always a risk, its all about minimising it.

The above has become second nature over the years but I suppose that wont be the case for everyone.

these keys are not from scrap machines, they are usually VLM (volume licences) that are used on many machines, i had one recently say cannot be used as maximum quota had been reached but seller then gave another key

will emphasis what someone else has already said and you are not covered by any PayPal guarantee as this is downloaded software, so try to buy a physical posted copy of possible

Maybe they could chuck in a free air freshener shaped like a tree

Seller states that you will be shipped faulty motherboard along with serial in line with ebay rules.

Obviously you arent getting a motherboard but if any problems its an open and shut case as seller cant prove delivery.

Yes it is, but these sellers put up many, many listings and while there are some automated checks Ebay can't stop every fraudulent listing. Report it and Ebay will remove it, but as people have said, who would genuinely think a £200 piece of software being sold for £6 is legit..

If it seems too good to be true....

I think persecution is probably a tad harsh.

you know Microsoft is so stupid..they make it so difficult to report a piracy..you have to fill out long online forms..i don't necessarily feel this is my duty although i don't mind doing it if less people will buy their stolen goods without knowing what it is exactly

I'd have thought HMRC would be more of a problem for the seller than ebay or MS. Selling a lot of commercial software that you don't have any receipts for? How much profit are they declaring?

you got a point there :smiley:

Would this work on a Mac version of Office 2016?

Also being sold here...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft-Office-2016-Professional-Plus-GENUINE-PRODUCT-KEY-DOWNLOAD-LINK-/332124873285?hash=item4d542f6245:g:svEAAOSwOgdYnfNe

Can no longer remember how but when I got the free upgrade to Windows 10 I got a free Office 2010 Starter version. It seems to do everything that the full version does for home use. MS Office Starter package can be had on Amazon for £20 or is claimed to be free at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1116j96W4

Just watched that vid (how to install MS Office Starter completely FREE see my post above) think that's how I got it. Totally legit. Office starter has limitations such as, no change history, no macros (which makes it safer against malware anyway), no pivot tables in Excel.

I was cynical about this, but at £6 it was worth a gamble. I'm really pleased to say ithas worked perfectly, so I have voted hot.

Has anyone purchased this and is it still working please? Was thinking of buying for my little office. Thx

Working fine. Bought on the day it was posted.