asked on

Office 2016 licensing

Hey all, I'm pretty sure my gut is right. I was helping a friend out with his Office 2016 install.

What struck me as strange was the reseller that the software was bought through, the vendor after his payment sent the downloads via uploadgig.com'

Next when we ran the activator, the following was the output.

===== Host:    == Auto Host == Port: 1688 =====
 Hello administrator. Program is ready to work.
                                       ==========================
=== Your system is activated . ===
Install/Reinstall KMS Service ...
Starting KMS-server service and creating Firewall Rule ...
KMS-Service started successful
                                       ==========================
=== Installing WinDivert driver ...
Activating Office using 100.100.0.10:1688 ...
===== KMS-host address will be deleted from system =====
= Clearing KMS-Server Data for Products: Office 2010, Office 2013/2016
== Office 16, Office16ProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
  Product Description: Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
      Partial Product Key: WFG99
Clearing KMS-Server Address/Name...
Successful.
Clearing KMS-Server Port...
Successful.
= KMS-Server Data Global Setting 
Setting SPP KMS-Server Address/Name to 100.100.0.10 ...
Successful.
Setting SPP KMS-Server Port to 1688 ...
Successful.
= Activation of Products: Office 2010, Office 2013/2016
== Office 16, Office16ProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
  Product Description: Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
      Partial Product Key: WFG99
       License Status: Licensed
     KMS-host Machine: 100.100.0.10:1688
Activating ...
= Clearing Global KMS-Server Data
Clearing SPP KMS-Server Address/name ...
Successful.
Clearing SPP KMS-Server Port ...
Successful.
KMS-host Service has been successfully deleted
                                       ==========================
                            =====   Product successfully activated   =====
                                       ==========================
= Products Status: Office 2010, Office 2013/2016
== Office 16, Office16ProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
  Product Description: Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
      Partial Product Key: WFG99
       License Status: Licensed
     KMS-host Machine: <default>:1688
         KMS-host PID: 05426-00206-441-403207-03-19466-9200.0000-1902016
 Expiration Date/Time: 19-May-2018 17:25  ( 179 d 23 h 47 min )
   Activation Interval: 30 d 0 h 0 min
     Renewal Interval: 30 d 0 h 0 min
                                       ==========================

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I really believe this and his really low price is too good to be true.

Any thoughts?

TIA

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Jackie Man

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☠ MASQ ☠

What Jackie said :)

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Kimputer

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William Miller

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Irwin W.

ASKER

Thanks all and as I thought, it is too good to be true.

We are in for a fight and will be lodging a police report as vendor is fighting the refund with this as proof of legitimacy.

I still do not believe them.

I have obscured the entire serial number.

This was a snippet of their absurd response to my friend...

Or tell your IT person you are going to make him more comfortable and take the Thousands of dollars out of his salary to buy it from Microsoft.

William Miller

Notice how that "activator" is not Microsoft branded? Means it's not legitimate. They just dug a hole for themselves by saying that that picture makes it legit. They are 100% not a Microsoft certified vendor and reporting them to Microsoft might also be a good step to take and offer them a copy of the activator. With that they may be able to shutdown the ability for this activator to work in future versions.

BillDL

How many personal details were furnished to the "company" during the purchase?
If it was purchased using a credit card, you or your friend should watch all transactions very carefully now that the seller has the details. You usually also have some additional protection through a credit card, because it was really the credit card company that has bought the software and you pay it back to them.

Jackie Man

It is not easy to get a refund from my experience as the money is normally paid via PayPal or any peer to peer payment service. It will be difficult to prove that it is any kind of licence fee for a software.

It is a lesson learnt and ask your friend to be careful next time.

☠ MASQ ☠

I'm not sure you need to obscure a Product Key that starts : 12345-6789x-xxx.... )

This is a better route for annoying them ...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/howtotell/cfr/report.aspx

Irwin W.

ASKER

@MASQ LOL Good Catch. I just took a look at the scanned image an right away knew it did not appear legit. :D

Jackie Man

KMS activator exists for a very long time and Microsoft should know it.

The website will just go down if Microsoft takes actions.

William Miller

They likely DO know it exists and may never take action against the "service". However, if they receive enough complaints and real evidence it may prompt them to pursue legal recourse. Often times companies ignore small fish because the cost to silence them simply outweighs the cost of just letting them exist.

Irwin W.

ASKER

Thanks all.