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Florida Woman Gets Prison Time For Illegally Selling Microsoft Product Keys (techradar.com) 65

Posted by BeauHD from the locked-away-with-no-windows dept.
A Florida woman was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison and fined $50,000 for illegally trafficking thousands of Microsoft certificate-of-authenticity labels used to activate Windows and Office. Prosecutors said she bought genuine labels cheaply from suppliers and resold them without the accompanying licensed software, wiring over $5 million during the scheme. TechRadar reports: The indictment details how [52-year-old Heidi Richards] purchased tens of thousands of genuine COA labels from a Texas-based supplier between 2018 and 2023 for well below the retail value, before reselling them in bulk to customers globally without the licensed software. "COA labels are not to be sold separately from the license and hardware that they are intended to accompany, and they hold no independent commercial value," the US Attorney's Office wrote.

Richards was found to have wired $5,148,181.50 to the unnamed Texas company during the scheme's operation. Some examples include the purchase of 800 Windows 10 COA labels in July 2018 for $22,100 (under $28 each) and a further 10,000 Windows 10 Pro COA labels in December 2022 for $200,000 ($20 each). Ultimately fined $50,000 and given a near-two-year sentence, prosecutors had sought to get Richards to pay $242,000, "which represents the proceeds obtained from the offenses."
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Florida Woman Gets Prison Time For Illegally Selling Microsoft Product Keys More

Florida Woman Gets Prison Time For Illegally Selling Microsoft Product Keys

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  • It's only legal to sell... wholesale?

    • This doesn't make sense to me either. Apparently the crime was not providing the software with those COAs, but that sounds like a contractual issue between Microsoft and her, not a criminal matter.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rashkae ( 59673 )

        I didn't bother to look up the case to see what charges were applied, but the most obvious one to me would be fraud (and interstate fraud at that, fraudulant wire transfer. etc.) If you ever look at those websites selling software keys, they always claim to be a 'license', which is it is not.

        It would be interesting to see what would happen if someone started selling "Microsoft Activation Keys copied from acquired stickers." But then, why would anyone pay money for that instead of just using a free activati

      • Re:Huh? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @10:47AM (#66026144)
        Well, the linked indictment lists the crime as a violation of 18 U.S.C. 2318 (I wonder if that section symbol will come through) - Trafficking in Counterfeit Labels.

        But what I find odd is that Microsoft did sue the Texas company that sold her the labels. That suit was in 2017, and the crimes Heidi was convicted of began in 2018. And the Texas company is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator.
        But why? It seems to me like the Texas company was the real offender, especially after they got sued for what they were doing and kept doing it. And got paid $5 million in the process. How did that happen? Did they get off by throwing her under the bus? That just sounds like giving the head of a drug cartel a deal for testifying against a street-level dealer. Backwards.
        My best guess would be that as part of a settlement with Microsoft, they agreed to help in a sting against their buyers. But I'm just guessing.

        (the section symbol didn't come through at all. Just imagine a double-s between U.S.C. and 2318)

      • I think the deal here is that she bought the labels... but did not have an actual license to go with them. Might as well be buying fake $20 bills.

        This would be the equivalent of selling stolen cars, that you don't actually have a title for.

        • Except buying stolen goods knowing they are stolen is a crime. From what we can tell she bought real labels. They were not tied to actual software. Selling the labels and advertising they went with software might be fraud but not buying the labels.

      • Reading the article again and the summary, here’s what I think is the crime is: she purchased tens of thousands of physical labels. These labels have legitimate Windows product keys on them; however, she was not actually buying Windows licenses. Then she was selling the product keys as legitimate licenses. To a buyer, it would appear they were buying legitimate keys as a person having the physical labels is a sign they might be a legitimate reseller. Some if not most of the keys might have already bee

        • So just to be clear, the issue may have been that her customers wouldn't necessarily have been able to activate Windows (or Office or some other Microsoft product) with the keys, or if they had someone who bought a Microsoft product from Microsoft would have run into the same issue because a duplicate of the key with it would have been sent, by her, to some other person?

          If so, I kinda now understand. Until now I'd been wondering whether she had been doing the same thing as, say, those companies that sell pe

          • Also there are not many legitimate reasons to buy just the labels especially since each is unique. For a box for a GPU, maybe there is a reason to buy a used one. A person buying hundreds of used GPU boxes is a slight red flag but not illegal per se.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rashkae ( 59673 )

            Whether the key can be used to activate the software is almost completely irrelevant. The implication, if not outright claim, was that she was selling licenses. Licenses are legal contract terms, and there is no way anyone buying these codes had a license from Microsoft.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by nicc777 ( 614519 )

      Yes, I was also wondering why the "Texas-based supplier" was not also dragged to court, as I think they should also not be allowed to sell it like they did.

      I also assume those labels do not come with any further legal material - so you are left to find out the rules in the masterful maze of Microsoft documentation!

      Not saying she did nothing wrong - but I can also see how this can very easily be a honest mistake to think that it is a legal way to sell what appears to be "legal" product keys.

      • While it may not be illegal per se to buy a CoA label, I cannot think of any reason anyone would buy a label without the license other than scams. She must have known she was not buying licenses.

      • Re: Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by BKX ( 5066 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @03:04PM (#66026630) Journal

        Microsoft themselves actually did go after the Texas company nearly a decade ago and won. Why the government didn't prosecute them criminally as well is beyond me.

        As far the the scam goes, I think people aren't wrote realizing that the CoA stickers aren't the license to use Windows. Will they activate a copy of Windows? Probably. I have no idea if Microsoft can blacklist blocks of stickers or not. I think what people are missing is that someone has to print up those stickers. This lady just bought a few rolls of those stickers under the table from the printer. But she definitely didn't buy licenses from Microsoft and I don't think, realistically, that she could have thought otherwise. Technically, when she was selling those stickers, it was a type of fraud because she didn't have the Windows licenses to sell, just the stickers, but any ordinary buyer is going to see the sticker and think they're getting a license, when they technically aren't. You don't really need to give out DVDs or other installation media anymore; anyone can get that from Microsoft's website for free.

        (I would also like to point out that I think the person I'm replying to probably knows all of paragraph 2 already; I'm just making it explicit.)

    • 18 U.S. Code 2320 [cornell.edu] defines "counterfeit mark" rather broadly. Included in the definition in (f)(1) is a "spurious ... label ... likely to ... deceive".

  • Nice business model (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nikkipolya ( 718326 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @10:19AM (#66026094)

    Spend 22 months in jail with free food and what not if caught and pay only $50,000. After wiring $5 million That's a sweet deal! Many would be tempted to go this route. Especially when getting jobs is becoming harder.

    • Re:Nice business model (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @10:49AM (#66026150)
      I don't think it's that sweet. First, that's $50k on top of them seizing everything she has as the proceeds of a crime. Then, after almost two years of lousy meals in terrible circumstances, she goes back into the world as a convicted felon, and has an even harder time finding work.

      • Re:Nice business model (Score:5, Funny)

        by El_Muerte_TDS ( 592157 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @12:04PM (#66026258) Homepage

        Could always run for president of the USA

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by linuxguy ( 98493 )

          > Could always run for president of the USA

          Only if we could all use the "I am innocent. I was treated unfairly by the courts and fake news media" excuse. Who knew that boldface lies like that can unlock doors to untold riches.

    • The feds will track the money down and she won't get a dime of it.

      Also American prisons are brutal. Intentionally so.

      They are designed to inflict torture without getting our hands dirty. So we massively understaffed them with the lowest paid worst treated employees imaginable and provide them with food that wouldn't be considered edible by 16th century soldier and then we looked the other way when the inmates beat the shit out of each other.

      Yeah I would cheerfully spend 22 months in a prison lik

      • > Also what the fuck why isn't this just a contract dispute?

        Because, as I understand it (from a comment above), the keys sold only worked for some of the people who got them. She was advertising them as legitimate, but would have known the source that she was getting them from was not authorized to provide the keys, and the chances of two people ending up with the same key, one a buyer of a Microsoft product, the other someone who bought the key from her, was large.

        I don't think it necessarily warrants a

    • $50K is the fine on top of everything she had to pay including forfeiture of proceeds and legal fees. For her, she also has "convicted felon" as part of her records now. Also prison might not be a white collar resort. It might be the "pound me in the " type described in Offce Space.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

      Spend 22 months in jail with free food and what not if caught and pay only $50,000. After wiring $5 million That's a sweet deal! Many would be tempted to go this route. Especially when getting jobs is becoming harder.

      Yeah, "free food and what not" isn't really a thing in the US prison system, google "pay to stay" (aka "jail rent"). The vast majority of US states have some form of this (though it appears the subject of the fine article was convicted federally, and the feds do not yet impose this madness in federal inmates).

    • It sounds sweet until you realise the legal system doesn't work that way and she does not get to keep a cent of those $5m. And if she is discovered to be hiding it she's going to be spending a lot more than 22 months in jail.

    • She's not rich enough for Martha Stewart or Tommy Chong jail.

    • "[P]ay only $50,000. After wiring $5 million"

      That's not how it works. You gotta hand back all the money you stole. The fine is *on top* of that.

    • and pay only $50,000. After wiring $5 million

      The $5 million is what she paid her suppliers for the codes. She supposedly profited $242k over her 5 years of reselling codes. That's under $50k per year. Not a great income.

      Paying a years income in fines and spending 2 years in prison is harsh for reselling license keys without authorization. Not counterfeits. She bought genuine license keys wholesale and resold them.

      • Ahh. I see the illegality.

        She was reselling real genuine keys, but implying that there was a valid license transferred with that key. There was not.

        The analogy would be selling house keys -to other people's houses: just because you have a key to the front door does not mean you have the right to enter.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      That was the joke I was looking for, but it's moderated as "insightful"? Not written in a funny enough way? Or did the moderators want some evidence that she had stashed the loot in a secure place? But that would have gone towards interesting. Still not funny?

    • Wiring $5M means she paid the Texas label company $5M, that doesn't mean she kept $5M.

      Her crime was wiring $5M across state lines to buy the counterfeit stickers.

      Also, I'm concerned about the fed's definition of 'food' in prison.

  • That's the only sort of story I want to hear about people from Florida. Did she have a bestiality farm in her basement? A Ferris Wheel made from used tampons? Come on, give me something Florida about this story!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Check this man's browser history

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by cpurdy ( 4838085 )
      One of the biggest contributors to the Florida economy is the scam industry, i.e. fraud, scams, embezzlement, blackmail, etc. Heck, they elect the biggest scammers and criminals to represent them in Congress (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/mar/03/florida-democratic-party/rick-scott-rick-scott-oversaw-largest-medicare-fra/). If you've been scammed, it's very likely that the scam is run out of Florida. (Not to let the various foreign scammers off the hook or anything ....)
      • Well, the scam calls I get don't appear to come from Florida. They sound like they come from India, but who can tell with phones.

        The last few I've gotten have all been about Medicare. I'm in my damn 40's!

  • Sites like alibaba [alibaba.com] have thousands of listing for these things...

    I will not be surprised if many are not even genuine stickers.

  • This is one case in many, and an increasing number, of the government prosecuting people for making corporations unhappy. It's going to continue until there isn't even a pretense of a difference between the corporations owning you and the government owning you.

    • No law was broken

      Not true. This would be like buying fake coupons from the printing company that makes the coupons for Whole Foods. It may be a coupon printed on the same press that made the real coupons, but its still fraud none-the-less.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Locutus ( 9039 )
        Were the product key labels fake? That wasn't stated in the brief, only that she was said to have "illegally trafficked MS product key labels".
        It's more like someone purchasing a case of valid store product coupons for cheap, finding a way to market them to the public selling them for a bit more than she paid. Just look at what she was charged with, ie not providing the software with the product key labels.

        This reminds me of when Microsoft send their goons after school districts across the US threatening l
        • I think the summary is not clear and people are drawing the wrong conclusions. Buying legitimate CoAs is not the core issue. The CoAs have product keys for Windows on them. She was not purchasing Windows licenses. She would then sell the product keys probably with the CoAs as proof of authenticity posing as a legitimate reseller. Now there is nothing illegal per se in buying the labels; however, there are very few legitmate reasons I can surmise why anyone would buy a label and not the license.

    • Selling counterfeit goods is clearly a crime, it's not something done just to please major corporations.

  • She must had been doing a lot of legitimate business for the amount paid and all these could had been accounting errors or excess licenses she was trying to get rid of.
  • Why do people keep torturing themselves with Windows, it's like they want to eat slop.
  • If you run regedit, you can see the key of any facing computer and use it on your home computer.

    The entire idea of keys is flawed. You can't actually use these and expect security. So Bill 'Bioterrorist/Scopex/Cancer meat/Brain on a Chip/Little kid banging Epstein' Gates is jailing others from his own mistakes?

    Priceless

  • What? (Score:2)

    by PPH ( 736903 )

    before reselling them in bulk to customers globally without the licensed software

    Who actually purchases software in this century as physical media? The key is needed to "activate" some application suite downloaded from the Interwebs*.

    *There may be exceptions to this. Media may be provided for corporate installations (behind firewalls that block Microsoft servers), secure facilities that have no connection the 'Net, or vast swaths of the US with broadband service in name only.

    • Having a string of text that unlocks a software package doesn't grant you a license to use the software.

      Having a key that opens the front door of someone else's house doesn't give you the right to trespass in the house.

  • When is M$ going to get prison time for selling faulty software?

  • ... was pretending that Windows has value.

  • Pretty sane (Score:3)

    by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:43PM (#66027350)

    For a florida woman that is.
    You would expect one to be arrested releasing a drunken alligator in a walmart or something.

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