Thread by @Barnacules

I'm sharing this so hopefully people will stop buying stolen Microsoft Windows 10 & 11 product activation keys from "cheap product key" websites some YouTubers keep advertising even though they are selling non-transferable stolen product keys. Keep reading & share 🙏

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https://twitter.com/Barnacules/status/1630236762948894724

The best way to verify if a cheap product key website is legit is to simply search for "Microsoft Windows" & if they sell keys for those products then they are corrupt. Microsoft Windows product keys are non-transferable sold as OEM, Volume & Retail keys only! #Tip

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This means the only valid way to obtain a legal Windows product key is to buy it directly from Microsoft or buy it from an authorized PC builder who will ship it installed on your PC with genuine sticker! So, how do these scammer cheap key websites get these keys? 🤔

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They buy them from thieves who steal them from their own job or get friends/family to do it. This was a huge problem when I was fulltime at Microsoft. People would resell their employee discount keys & also steal keys off test systems never activated in the labs! 🥷

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Another way scammers get ahold of stolen product keys is to solicit forums looking for ex Microsoft Employees who joined the Microsoft Alumni Network giving them access to 5 product keys for every product/sku per day for PERSONAL USE ONLY then turn around & sell them.

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As you might imagine people that are angry with Microsoft laying them off might be compelled to pay $99 a year to join a program that gets them thousands of dollars' worth of product keys every week so they can sell them for a few bucks each to scammers to replace income?

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I would never do this because it's too easy to get caught and when you do bad things happen, but they won't deactivate the keys usually since they assume the customers who ultimately purchased them believe them to be legit & don't want to overwhelm tech support #.

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So usually, the keys you get from these sites will work but they have no way of testing them so if they give you a key that was already previously activated which happens a lot, they will just ignore you & block you since nobody checks the reviews on any of these sites.

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If you can't afford a genuine Windows 10 or 11 license, then instead of giving criminals money for a stolen license you should just steal it yourself for FREE and it's the same end result except criminals don't get paid for their crime.

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Microsoft is so fed up with thieves at this point selling stolen keys to customers who think they are buying a genuine copy that they are just letting GITHUB fill up with projects that tell you how to activate Windows for FREE just so they don't overwhelm support #'s.

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The activation method that was the easiest turnkey solution I tested with a VM that has been around the longest and cleared the most by Reddit is MAS (Microsoft Activation Scripts) on GitHub. github.com/massgravel/Mic…

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What would happen is people would wonder why their key stopped working anymore when they purchased it from an online retailer & have the receipt email that claims it was legit for 1/12th the price because a YouTuber told them it's totally legit & 100% legal 🤦‍♂️

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The sad truth is many YouTubers won't really research any company that offers an insane amount of money or a HUGE affiliate commission per sale because they don't want to be talked out of such a huge bag especially in a bad economy especially for content creators.

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But I really hope that enough of you guys share this entire thread everywhere you possibly can so everyone who can't afford licenses can find a solution to get them buy until they can buy a real authentic license or get one with a new PC instead of supporting criminals🙏

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I also want to add there are legit sites like Humble Bundle that sell real product keys that aren't stolen or obtained from people who stole them so they don't have to hide their identity like other sites doing shady stuff have to & can publish their business information

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This is what the domain information looks like for CDKeys, G2A & every other reseller that won't prove to you where they purchased the keys because they know they are stolen which is why they are getting them for pennies on the dollar. Those keys could stop working.

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I've spent so many hours investigating all of this and even missed live streaming tonight to get this thread written for you all. So please take a moment and share it even if you don't have many followers because the algorithm will ignore it otherwise.

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Also, it goes without saying please don't harass anyone or attack them for advertising these scam sites on their YouTube channel. Like I said earlier they may have just not investigated anything before taking the money and this is a teachable moment. I've had a lot myself 🙏