On July 24th, the FBI and the Chinese Public Security Bureau seized almost five hundred million dollars of counterfeit Microsoft software, making it the largest single counterfeiting bust in history.  Microsoft estimates that the total software produced by this group over the past several years values at over 2 billion dollars.  Microsoft’s dedicated anti-counterfeiting team, Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), helped track down more than 1000 people across 12 countries who had purchased the counterfeit software.  These people turned the software over to Microsoft, who gave it to forensic specialists, who traced it to the group based in Guangdong province, China.  Without WGA’s help, this group would still be at large, making millions off other people’s work.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with WGA, their the ones who are behind all the security precautions in the Windows packaging (the holographic disks, the product keys, etc). 

Here’s a picture of the fake and the real Windows Vista Business disks, side by side.  See if you can tell which one’s which.