A global study by software major Microsoft has revealed that 86 per cent of Indian customers purchase genuine software even if it costs more.

The survey was conducted on over 38,000 people in 20 countries, a company press release said today.

Data loss and ID theft were among the top concerns of the Indian consumers, who expressed their resounding support for government and industry for taking action against counterfeiters.

Over 6000 Indian customers had reported the incidents of pirated or illegal software to Microsoft India in the last two years, it said.

More than 50 per cent consumers thought issues like error pop ups, stolen password and lost data were more likely to happen with counterfeit software.

As many as 75 per cent of consumers in India said they believed that genuine software was more secure and stable.