Microsoft Targets Windows XP "Blue Edition" Scam

Microsoft on Thursday announced that it has filed as many as 63 lawsuits in its recent attempt to crackdown on sellers of its fake software, including online vendors that auction its software under a new scam, tagged as “Blue Edition”, which offers extremely low prices to buyers. 

The software giant filed lawsuits in 12 countries, including Japan, Germany, Argentina, Canada, the UK, and the US, aiming at people who purportedly sold fake copies of its prominent software, including Windows XP, Microsoft Office, and other products through online auction websites, senior attorney with Microsoft’s anti-piracy team, Matt Lundy said. 

He further stated that the online auction sites are more unsafe for consumers, as these let the forgers to reach anyone who uses the web, and thereby provide them a huge chunk of probable victims. 

According to the company, websites at which the online auction of counterfeit software had taken place include some of the big names, like Amazon.com, eBay, MySpace, PriceGrabber, PCWorld, and Craiglist. 

Commenting upon the “Blue Edition”, Lundy annuls the program by calling it “entirely fictional”, and asserted that the counterfeiters burn Microsoft’s software on recordable CDs and DVDs, and thereafter sell them at ultra-low prices, by claiming it to be a part of Microsoft’s online marketing program.