Help please! Getting warnings of of soft ware counterfeiting

Don'tskipit

Hi, for the last couple of days, when switching on comp,I get a warning message. 'You might be a victim of software counterfeiting'.
When I click on the box this comes up - ' Windows xp Genuine Microsoft Validation Results. This copy of windows did not pass genuine vaildation'
Then asks for £95.86 to update. Is this a scam?

PS when I click cancel my screen goes black 'till I click start again.

Marty_J

Sounds as though your copy of Windows failed the Genuine Advantage validation, in which case, no, it's not a scam.

Are you using a legitimate copy of Windows?

It does sometimes throw up false positives.

Percy1983

Do you have a legit copy of windows? if so you should have a license code (usually a sticker on the case) if so we need to make sure that's what is in use.

nico26

Ive been getting it yesterday as well.Mine is genuine.Well Im sure it is was on computer when we bought it. Thought it funny as been running for 2 years and first this ever happened.

aliEnRIK

nico26 wrote: »

Ive been getting it yesterday as well.Mine is genuine.Well Im sure it is was on computer when we bought it. Thought it funny as been running for 2 years and first this ever happened.

Its possible that the key is now blacklisted and has been illegal from the beginning

tripled

It might be some sort of 'scareware' - go to the Microsoft Website and validate your copy there:

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/validate/ValidateNow.aspx?displaylang=en

That will confirm if Microsoft think your copy is legit or not.

You can find out more on the Genuine Advantage notifications here:

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/AboutNotifications.aspx?displaylang=en

Don'tskipit

Thanks Percy 1983 and Marty J,

I haven't changed anything on this PC since I've had it - 12 months or so.

Widows was already installed when I got it, had no trouble with it till now.

Percy1983

Recently microsoft has been upping the odds on this and getting tougher, I know as a computer I was running also came up with this and I know it wasn't legit.

If you have a legit key you should have a certificate for which as mentioned is a usually a sticker but may be on a book etc.

If you don't have one of these it is likely your key isn't legit, if you bought your computer from a small retailer it has been known for them to use one license on multiple machines.

You should contact the place who installed it and see how far you get, failing that you can either purchase a license to which I can advise places to do it cheap or I know of a way to stop the notifications but you still wouldn't be legit.

cowbutt

If you're running XP Pro, Microsoft recently updated WGA in response to unauthorised copying and use of that product - http://blogs.msdn.com/wga/archive/2009/03/24/update-to-wga-notifications-for-windows-xp-pro.aspx