BSA email for sensitive and private data

[defaulth1j9i43n27zd]

Hi everybody,

we received both a call and some emails from a company called BSA (which seems that work for/with Adobe, Autodesk, and others) . They want several private documents and sensitive informations, regarding the Adobe license for the company which I work for. 

Every Adobe software is legally purchased, but, since we bought the software from Adobe we need an official mail from them, in order to send all the sensitive data to this BSA company.

As all of you perfectly know the fake companies or the scams.

It's very difficult to contact or chatting with the Adobe help centre or with an operator, so please I kindly ask for an official Adobe nuber or a mail which I can use to dialogue with them.

[John T Smith]

Adobe, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA Tel: 408-536-6000 Fax: 408-537-6000

[Test Screen Name]

BSA is an established organisation whose responsibilities and powers do include a software audit of any company who accepts a software license that allows it (you will find you did this). However, you should take steps to establish you are dealing with the real BSA, not a scammer. Check any email return address is something@bsa.org . You can read more about BSA here https://www.itassetmanagement.net/2011/08/02/bsa-power/ .

[Mike22231960qzfg]

mine is from *@bsacompliancesolutions.org
is this legit?

[Lumigraphics]

Send them the address for your attorney and request that all communication be via your attorney. This is legal/contract suff and should be handled by qualified legal counsel.

[LinSims]

Do you work for a company with an IT or Accounting department? If so, forward this telling them that you don't know if it's legitimate or not, but if it is, you think this is something that should be handled by either one of them or legal. I don't think they should be asking you directly if you're a bog-standard user.

[Mr Creative 1970]

Yes, this is legit.  We spoke to them  You can see here that Adobe are one of their members https://www.bsa.org/membership

[Mike22231960qzfg]

and seriously ... why are they sending me an excel file for "inventory?"  That's an immediate red flag. 

[Jiří2763378845lk]

Hello,

Any update? I received same request also from @bsacompliancesolutions.org. 

[kglad]

@Jiří2763378845lk 

don't send them anything.  don't even acknowledge receipt of that email.

[Lumigraphics]

Give it to your attorney. That's what they get paid for.

[ProDesignTools]

bsacompliancesolutions.org is a legitimate domain, part of BSA, and not a scam:

https://www.bsa.org/compliance-solutions

https://bsacompliancesolutions.org/about-us/

In other words, a confirmed email from that source is legit and not fake.

Agree with others above that consulting legal and/or accounting advice is recommended.

[kglad]

@ProDesignTools 

for what purpose would request adobe license info??

[John T Smith]

I don't know about Adobe, but a couple years ago I received several emails from BSA concerning my "business" and Microsoft software... which stopped when I replied that my "business" was an online store (run by my wife) with an individual computer using single user versions of Microsoft software

[ProDesignTools]

BSA investigates copyright infringement claims and conducts licensing audits on behalf of software publishers. Adobe is a member of BSA:

https://www.adobe.com/about-adobe/government-relations/associations.html

[kglad]

i would never reply to an email asking for licensing information.

what assurance do you have that it's really a bsa email and not someone pretending to be bsa?  even checking all the email headers is no assurance.

you would have to go to their website and contact them to even be half-way comfortable.

[Test Screen Name]

You might ignore their messages, but they have (in many countries) the legal right to audit software from many publishers, and they are likely to persist, and there's a good chance they will perform an in-person audit. (The chances increase, of course, if you ignore them). It would be a good time to sort out all the license records - for example, have detailed info on which computer and user is using which license, for all purchased software, ready to hand over. Things like lost serials or a disorganised approach to buying (so you don't know which computer has which license) may lead to time-wasting inconvenience.  For the specific case of Adobe subscription software they will need to be able to confirm that licenses are never shared even on the same computer, since that's part of the license terms. This is all rather easier if the business has one person and one computer.

[kglad]

@Test Screen Name 

if you carefully checked their email and it looked like it originated from bsa.org, would you send them the serial number from say photoshop elements?

[Lumigraphics]

I would have my attorney send them a letter. As for legal rights, there may be a contractual provision that mandates cooperation with an audit. A court would need to enforce that if push came to shove.

[kglad]

it would be less costly to stonewall them even if you eventually had (current) perpetual licenses revoked.

[ProDesignTools]

In thinking of how to handle the situation, note that it may be more than just licenses being revoked but also fines for violations which could be levied.

Companies could pay up to $150K per infraction for unlicensed software use

NB: We here are all just fellow Adobe users and no post on this thread should be considered legal advice.

[kglad]

well, i think that's if you're doing something illegal.  i'm not.

but i am still saying i wouldn't be inclined to cooperate with anyone contacting me unexpectedly via email about anything, including adobe licenses.

[Mr Creative 1970]

Why would you spend lots of money getting an attorney.  The BSA did a review on us, provided some useful information on Adobe licensing and then we realised we actually assigned more licenses that we needed to.  Saved us money in the end.

[Test Screen Name]

"if you carefully checked their email and it looked like it originated from bsa.org, would you send them the serial number from say photoshop elements?" Well, first, I would use the mail it was from at all. That can be faked, I'd not trust it for a second. However if

(a) they ask for a reply by email, AND

(b) when you reply, and check the email it is going TO, and there is no CC - and it's the right domain

then I might trust it. However, I'd be inclined to reply, initially, that our Adobe licenses forbid us from sharing information with third parties, and ask them to provide official authorization from Adobe. It would be odd if they are JUST asking for serial numbers though, since the big money is in subscriptions and enterprise licensing.

[kglad]

"I'd be inclined to reply, initially, that our Adobe licenses forbid us from sharing information with third parties, and ask them to provide official authorization from Adobe."

and that's a problem.  once you engage, you're setting yourself up to be hooked if it's a scam.  you would have no way to determine if whatever they send is from adobe.  they (or the imposter) might be in possession of an official adobe document that they edited.

because you have some considerable amount of adobe savvy and actually can communicate with adobe employees, you (and i) could probably get to the bottom of this and determine if it's an imposter, or not.  but for others, (imo) they shouldn't even reply.