Because 3,000 people are too dumb to find the same keygen that this person is using to sell dodgy keys?

:man:

It doesn't matter how they are selling them, they are illegal. I don't understand why people have so much trouble understanding this. The CHEAPEST way to buy Office outright is around £110. The cheapeat subscription is aorund £49/year.
You CANNOT legally buy Office 2016 for £3. Which part of this is causing a problem?
The bit where it isn't what you want to hear I'm assuming.

Is this for Dreamcast?

Mm, quick google maps reveals that its a domestic property, I guess he stores all the original PC's in his back room and runs the 24x7 hotline from the downstairs toilet!

People leave feedback when it works. They can't then change that feedback later when MS tells them to go forth and multiply.

He's on Facebook. I might drop him a message and say hello.

9V3QN-6MCK8-CTT9W-CKYX8-82QMB
8K8G6-N223K-F3TGT-WP3JT-Y983Y
MC22N-XXW22-K6W7Q-7VPW8-Q69YB

I haven't heard from him for ages. I guess he's still in the Channel Islands, playing computer games.

Oh, crikey. That's just reminded me of Nick LeLievre.
Wonder what he's doing now.

I think it was uk.comp. homebuilt that I saw you.
GB, which is a lot less memorable.

thanks, will look into this

Yep, as seen on plenty of uk..... newsgroups for about 15 years.
Which ones did you hang out on, and what was your username back then?

I still miss usenet, but it still not been the same for a while now. I don't even have a news client installed on my laptop any more.

I'm not going deep in MS licensing but MS Office Pro Plus (or Office Standard) can be used only in commercial environment, obtained only through volume licensing or MSDN license. There's not such thing as Office Pro Plus OEM license. From both points of view (MSDN/volume licensing) it is not within licensing terms to resell such a license to an end user so there's no difference between buying product key from this guy or googling it on the internet. Same apply to Windows Enterprise.

There is no keygen, it is an MSDN or developer account. When the account gets reported or Microsoft actually gets off their backsides and does something, all keys cease to work, probably way beyond the time for people to notice and the seller to get in trouble. He will buy another account and start again.

From Microsoft's point of view, they are not 'all over it' because it lets them say 'we have 90% penetration of Windows and Office'. That's not to say they condone it, just that they do get some benefit when you pirate it.

Also, this isn't 'illegal' but it does violate the EULA. Any other stories or tales to convince yourself otherwise are totally false. There are no mountains of nearly new scrapped machines. There are no cheap loopholes some tinpot seller on eBay has discovered that a multi-billion dollar company like Microsoft has overseen, in the same way there are no get rich quick schemes. Wake up.

eBay used to be pretty hot at removing any MS software sales that were even remotely suspect, so the fact that this seller has managed to retain his/her sales status tells me that it can't be out-and-out pirate software.

Key wouldn't activate, don't waste money, can post screenshot for the nonbelievers, also, his website hold no contact info.

should have upgraded for free to W10 for a new licence

Well i purchased office pro plus 2016 off Amazon for 18.75 this morning before this deal came out so if it's genuine, it's bloody hot. Thought getting it under £20 off Amazon was already a bargain!

the dead motherboard thing is a red herring & nobody gets sent a dead motherboard

it's a way of complying with European law on licences - theoretically every licence could get a dead motherborad to make it legal, if challenged

you have zero risk, they're protecting themselves as suppliers

yes - you are in effect relying on them only selling each key once - but the feedback score seems to indicate they are OK in this respect

Guaranteed dodgy

Recently bought a Windows 7 key from ebay. Left a positive review as it all seemed to work well.

A couple of months later and it's being reported as non-genuine :disappointed: I might check back here in a couple of months and see if any buyers have had problems.

So as long as the seller has one dead motherboard for each key that they sell, and they don't sell any key more than once, there won't be an issue for the buyer once it's been activated (which presumably happens at the time it's installed)?

29 days is HIGHLY UNLIKELY as all these people would be submitting bad feedback to Ebay, they have 3 months to do that from memory

I've been using something like this but from a different seller since the turn of the year with zero problems. Voted hot.

GENIUS, he uses the keygen and then sends you the key! You don't download the keygen yourself. Remember these keys will normally stop working after 29 days when the software phones home to make sure too many keys haven't been activated on the account.

What would be Microsoft's logic for determining that these keys were invalid? Presumably they would need to assume that the associated motherboards (i.e. the ones for which the keys were originally issued) were no longer in use. I'm not sure how they could reliably make that sort of assumption - i.e. I'm not aware of any way of reliably checking whether a key is being used in conjunction with a motherboard for which it was not originally licensed. I'm guessing that the OEM keys are issued in bulk by Microsoft to the manufacturer, and only associated to motherboards by the manufacturer themselves.

Alternatively, Microsoft could assume that every key sold by this seller is invalid, which would require obtaining (i.e. purchasing) a substantial number of them to be sure - this would need to be coupled with the assumptions outlined above.

So does anyone know if it's technically possible to tell whether a given combination of motherboard and MS licence key is valid?

Good news for me, he lives in Birmingham so Ill get a refund plus is loss of earnings if itturns out to be a dodgy key! :P

The keygen programme itself may well be dodgy, but that won't mean that the keys themselves have viruses in.

If there are any problems ever on an eBay purchase, eBay have a policy where you can raise a case and ask for your money back, all £3.05 of them.

But the seller is a proven trusted eBay seller. Read their profile, check their feedback, its squeaky clean

really? can you explain how that's possible?

99.9% approval on Ebay, 3200 votes

Actually I speak from experience. A few years ago I had a genuine Windows CD - i.e. purchased from Microsoft, and not currently installed on any PC, but for some reason it was not eligible for resale (which I wasn't aware of). Anyway I put it on eBay and it was withdrawn by eBay within 24 hours. They explained that they had withdrawn it because it was not legal.

I bought it just for the bantz
Let's see if it works

The Keygen will have viruses etc.

paid £3 a copy week ago, key entered via https://setup.office.com/ and once verified, the key is saved to your mircosoft account

Here’s what to do next:
1. Click the Download now button, below.
2. Save the file to your desktop. Don’t change the filename.
3. Double-click the file icon.
4. Enter the product key shown above.
5. Follow the instructions to activate your licence.

Dr Zoidberg, as in the Dr Zoidberg who used to be on Usenet a lot?

BTW I agree with what you wrote. If these were TVs being sold for £3, nobody would be suggesting they weren't stolen.

Why is everyone just assuming these are from a keygen. Is it not every bit possible they have been removed from old business pc's upon renewal.

As a user I think Libre office is very good, but...... I like MS Office professional better. You pays your money and takes your chance

Use libreoffice which is open source....

The key doesn't 'give up' as such, it just nags you and tells you there is a problem with your account. I know as I had a real 365 licence that someone pulled the plug on last week and it's still working with full functionality but nags me when I start it up.

Here's where the seller is in Birmingham

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/59+Amberley+Grove,[email protected],-1.879532,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4870a4ab43246b23:0x3dcca90149b642ad!8m2!3d52.5174917!4d-1.877338

From the listing:

"YOU WILL GET A BROKEN MOTHERBOARD THAT COMES WITH THE OEM KEY AS REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH eBAY POLICY OF OEM SOFTWARE. CONTACT US FOR MORE DETAILS
FOR THIS SPECIAL OFFER PRODUCT NO INVOICE CAN BE SUPPLIED BUT YOU WILL RECIEVE EBAY CONFIRMATION ON SUCCESSFUL PURCHASE. SO PLEASE BUY IF YOU'RE HAPPY WITH IT!!

eBay Policy States:

"OEM, bundled, or recovery software may be listed only if it is included along with the original hardware, such as the motherboard, hard drive, or computer sold with the OEM software." - Therefore, this sale includes the original broken beyond economical repair computer and motherboard."

I guess they're getting around it with that loophole somehow.

One way or another, this is very unlikely to be 'legitimate' for this price. Having said that, the worst case scenario would be that £3.05 isn't a huge price to pay for a few months of MS Office 2016 use?

Thanks OP

Heat added,will give it a go,kind of bored with nothing to moan about to the populous.

I resent that remark I run it from my shed.:smile:

Just under a tenner for a legit copy if your company does the home user programme

Check if your employer is part of the Home use program.

https://www.microsofthup.com/hupuk/default.aspx?culture=en-GB

£9.95 & legit.

For me its £3.05 more expensive than open office but if you really need Microsoft this is a hot deal

Another seller doing it for £2.79.

i thought recent editions of Ms Office were only available on a strictly subscription basis ??

the keys work with MS Servers

Aren't the keys activated by Microsoft or via a local KMS server these days.

Because 3,000 people are too dumb to find the same keygen that this person is using to sell dodgy keys?

:man:

I'll get the popcorn and wait for the inevitable comments.

looks too good to be true

"inb4" everything.

Is this for Dreamcast?