Adobe thinks I have more than two computers

Question

I recently purchased Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium. I only have two Windows computers. One is running 64 bit Vista Ultimate and the other one (a laptop) is running Vista Home Edition. I installed the Adobe suite on both machines without issue. I took my laptop over to Peet's to use it and now when I come home to use it on the other computer, I get a big message box saying:
Excuse the interruption, but:
Our records indicate that this serial number has already been used to set up and activate Creative Suite 4 Production Premium on two other machines, which is the maximum allowed.
You have 30 days from today to correct this problem.
I called in to the support number and they are showing that it has been activated on 6 different computers now.
The only thing I can think of is that someone at Peet's was able to steal my serial number through some hacker magic maybe eavesdropping over the wireless somehow?
Please help! Is this a known issue or something?
This software was way too expensive to have this happen. I am not a pirate, I didn't give the number to anyone. I didn't expose the serial number anywhere knowingly or accidentally.
Please help.
One thing I did notice is that the Adobe updater failed to complete it's activities on my 64 bit machine. Sometimes the 64 bit machine has trouble because there are not enough drivers written for it. Maybe it's something like that? Please help.

Answer 1

Sorry to hear about your problem.
A few observations and questions.
(1) The Adobe Creative Suite requires Vista Home Premium as a minimum configuration. Hopefully your notebook system is
not running Vista Home Basic. The fact that it installed would indicate that you are probably running Vista Home Premium.
(2) Exactly where and how did you purchase the CS4 Production Premium? Was it in a sealed box from Adobe or a authorized dealer or was it from eBay or some Warez site?
(3) The fact that it activated on more than two systems is indicative of at least four of the six systems attempted activation using some type of hacked version of the software.
(4) Adobe's communication between your system and Adobe for activation is secure, but obviously, someone may have hacked your system to record keystrokes or otherwise capture data from your system.
Assuming that you indeed made your purchase via a reputable source (i.e., either directly from Adobe or from an authorized dealer) and that you have a receipt for your purchase, I would recommend that you contact Adobe Customer Support, explain the situation and your suspicions and offer to send them a copy of your receipt or a fax of same. They should be able to fix the situation via supplying you with a new serial number and let you enter that number on both your installations and let them reactivate with the new serial number. Make sure you get the names of any persons you speak with at Adobe Customer Support and if you encounter any problems ask to speak with a supervisor. (If you still can't get anywhere with those folks, contact me offline via e-mail and I'll see what I can do to assist.)
In the meantime, I would most strongly recommend that you thoroughly scan your system for viruses, trojans, keyloggers, etc. with updated virus scan definitions and with any one of a number of programs such as "SpyBot" (a free spyware scanner) that can search and destroy any problematic crud that may be infecting your system. You should also make sure you have effective firewall software if you frequent public WiFi locations.
- Dov