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Angry_as_hell1
Angry_as_hell1
Participant
February 2, 2017
Question

A CD i bought on Amazon is supposedly fake (I find out 3 years after using it)

  • February 2, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1146 views

My motherboard went out on my computer so I had to replace much of my computer. When I install Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (from the disc I have had for years mind you), when I try to enter the serial number on the back of the box I get an error that the code is not legit. So I call tech support and am on hold for ages, then told to go online. Then I go online and wait in a digital queue for several minutes. Then I finally reach tech support, and they tell me that this program is fake (in spite of it being in a box, from disc, emblazoned with Adobe information, it worked great for 3+ years) but somehow they just found out. The fix, they tell me, is to buy a subscription plan for 29.99 per month (reduced from 49.99 per month for my inconvenience) and try to contact Amazon 3 years later for a refund (yeah, right)

So my question is: Screw Adobe!

Wait, that isn't a question: my actual question is: is it possible that they only just found out that this serial number is fake (years after using it, mind you), or is this all a big scam to not support older, non-subscription versions of their software? Has anyone else had a similar issue? This sounds like complete and utter bullshit to me (my hard drive went out middle of last year and the program reinstalled fine then)

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 2, 2017

i don't know what the statute of limitations (afaik) for receiving stolen goods is nor the statute of limitations for possessing pirated software.  but confiscating stolen goods/disabling pirated software seems like minor punishment compared to being prosecuted.

i'm not sure adobe's obligated to notify you at (or about) the time of purchase that your software was pirated.  maybe you used a scheme that was successful at avoiding detection 3 years ago and adobe's gotten better at preventing activation of pirated software.

Angry_as_hell1
Angry_as_hell1Author
Participant
February 2, 2017

The "scheme" I used was to pay hundreds of dollars to buy the disc off of Amazon and use it successfully for years using the serial number attached to the CD case. Evil genius, I know. If I were knowingly using pirated software, I would sincerely hope that I would not waste hours of my day trying to find out why the serial number did not match up anymore.

But thank you so much for your useful answer #sarcasm

Gennine
Gennine
Participant
July 8, 2023

you can count on getting counterfeit software when buying from non-authorized dealers which is anyone that has more than one copy selling on amazon or ebay.

you can get non-pirated software that's used from an individual selling their older software. but it is going to have no box/case or the box/case will be unsealed.  in addition, most individual sellers do not properly transfer their license when selling legitimate software so you still end up buying a problem waiting to happen, Transfer an Adobe product license

i know this is not what you want to hear, because it's no help to you now.  but it might be helpful in the future.


Just want to add my two cents... but I bought Acrobat back in 2014, registered the purchase with the serial number with Adobe when I received the CD.  I used the software on each PC I upgraded over the years without word one.  The other day I installed it on the new PC, but this time Adobe flagged it as invalid.

 

Adobe has been moving to cloud based subscriptions and I find this convenient that they now allege my serial number is not valid, block it so I can't use the program anymore and it only took them nine years.  Far as I'm concerned that's lame.

 

If it was not a valid serial number then they should have checked it when I registered it with them, but since they didn't do that, why should I have bothered registering it with them.  And since they took nine years to do this, I can't even get my money back from the source I purchased it from.

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