Harassing emails and calls from someone claiming to do Audits for Adobe

[Quesinberry]

Anyone else getting repeated calls and emails from someone claiming to be from the BSA doing "audits" for Adobe.  They send random XLS attachments, etc. which I will never ever open under any circumstances. 

We are a tiny 4 person shop. We use exclusively CS Suite subscriptions for which we maintain six licenses. 

@Adobe Customer Service: If this is a common practice for Adobe it is absurd. Contact your customers through your UI. In the modern internet age no identity can be trusted via email. Second, treating your loyal customers as criminals under investigation is insulting. 

This is such an astonishingly bad look. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Quesinberry first, this isn't direct contact with Adobe Customer Care - it is a user-to-user public forum. That being said, the BSA audits are compeltely legit and part of your EULA agreement that your company signed.

[Quesinberry]

UPDATE:

It appears there is confusion as to me question.

I know the BSA is a real organization. And I relaize we have a EULA agrrement to comply with audits. That is not the issue.

Issue 1) Is that the induviual is repeatedly contacting us without verifying thier identity and contacting us via a highly suspect means. And that a software company that already has a communication portal that we subscibe to should know better.

Issue 2) And that every attempt to verify this person (meails to the BSA, replies to the email in question, calls to and emails to Adobe) has either been obstructed, ignored, or contradicted (Adobe's offical contact domain list sent to us by thier CCR does NOT include the BSA.org domain).

There is nothing about this that is not time wasting for everyone involved, erroding trust, and frankly very insulting for long time Adobe customers. And that Adobe customers are given ZERO ability to inteact with Adobe to deal with these probelms and frustrations.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Quesinberry if you really think this is not legitimate - contact your Account representative for your enterprise account or via the portal. Adobe's contact list would not include the BSA.org domain - they are a separate, contracted company that conducts these audits on behalf of Adobe. If the emails you are getting are coming from BSA.org they are legit.

[Quesinberry]

<Removed Personal Information>

[Quesinberry]

I'm not sure how much more clear I can be. 

We know the BSA is a real organization. we do NOT know if this individual represents them. Emails can be easily spoofed.

We HAVE called our Adobe Customers Care reps. Multiple times. And received totally contradictory advice. From "if they are NOT ON THE Adobe list -- ignore them." To "We know they are not on the Adobe list. Contact Licensing maybe they can confirm identity." 

We have replied to the emails. we have emailed Adobe Licensing. We have attempted contact directly through the BSA portal and info account.

We thus far recived neither confirmation of our email attempts nor replies in either case. 

The supposed BSA person has called on the phone but that is neither secure or appropriate for this kind of interaction. And this MUST be in writing. I will not engage with any business entity incoming on the phone but only if I make the call and then proceed in writing. 

This is NOT acceptable. EULA or not. We are fully compliant through Adobe's own licensing subscription portal. A glance at a dashboard can confirm this.

Adobe allowing a third party, if this is legitimate, make hamfisted harassing contacts with no replies to questions in writing and no means to identify themselves is absurd, insulting, and unprofessional. 

The point is if Adobe and the BSA want trust -- they have an entire website section dedicated to the idea -- why are they doing this in the most unprofessional least trustworthy way possible?

It is shocking to me that the Adobe community finds this remotely acceptable. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Quesinberry phone calls are odd and a cause for concern. Most interactions that have been reported on here have been in writing via email.

Check this post for contact information and a typical method that BSA/Adobe Licensing would use.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/enterprise-teams-discussions/adobe-license-review-final-letter/td-p/1...

[Quesinberry]

The problem is emails can be copied and pasted by bad faith actors easily enough. 

Email domains can be spoofed. We have seen it before. Extremely convincing contacts. Again. This is the 2024 internet here. The age of AI and state sponsored troll and malware farms. Entire corporations with $100 million dollar IT security have been fooled. I do not have a $100 million dollar IT department. I have... me. We are a four person shop. This has already rated 1/4 of my companies productive earning capacity. 

There is no reason at all for all of this nor to be handled through th Adobe Cloud portal. The help desk representatives are all outside contracted employees. Adobe grants access to trusted contractors everyday. Emails with suspicious attachments and phone calls are no way to conduct something of legal contract nature requiring private business information in 2024. 

The onus has been on US the loyal customers of Adobe to deal with this. That is not how you build trust. This should not even be a discussion. We have allowed massive corporations to bully us into accepting burdens they should be taking on. And this community needs to stand up to it so they can change and be better.  They used to be better. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Quesinberry sounds like you have concerns other than the actual audit process. Reminding you that it is spelled out clearly in the contract your company signed. Either way, the post I sent you has a contact for Adobe Licensing. I would suggest you contact them to resolve your concerns.

[Quesinberry]

If someone wouldn't mind deleting that iPhone auto reply with my info that would be great. Another this that Adobe gets wrong -- no edit ability. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Got it. No worries.

[Abambo]

Edit capability gets attributed by seniority. New users here can't edit posts. That may be an advantage (against bad faith users) but also a disadvantage (like in your case). 

As for your case: Auditing is a normal operation, but the you need to have proof that the company working for Adobe is really working for Adobe. There are means to get get this done. Adobe is at the forefront of this, so they have the means to provide solutions. 

I won't answer your initial question, however, as I do not know the company doing the audit.