this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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There are people selling oem keys on eBay for $5-$7. It’s too easy to buy a “legit” key at this point.
but why would you when you can get it for free it's not like ms is gonna give two fucks about you. they make their real $$ from business licenses
And it's super easy to activate it while having pirated it
Not to mention that Windows is basically completely functional without being activated
And most of the stuff they disable can be reenabled via group policy. Only thing I need personally is dark mode.
But what's the risk you're buying keys purchased with stolen funds like on sketchy video game key resellers?
You lose your 5-7€ because the code doesn't exist or has already been used.
That literally is it.
It is just a short string of letters and numbers, nothing nefarious can be done with that.
My concern was around situations where someone buys keys with a stolen credit card, and sells them as a form of money laundering.
That feels nefarious, and not participating in marketplaces with a high likelihood of participating in money laundering seems like a good method of harm reduction.