Beware of PhotoKeeper

UPDATE, JULY 10, 2017: You will notice that one of the comments is from the developers of PhotoKeeper. They give a plausible explanation for the scamming/spamming behavior, and they ask us (you and me) to consider trying the app again.

And the PhotoKeeper entries at Google Play and the App Store have been VERY recently deleted and rewritten. All of the old reviews are GONE.

This review was written in January 2017. The developers submitted their comment on April 20, 2017. And yet, according to this webpage, as of May 23, 2017, PhotoKeeper was still spamming.

I'd like to hear some more comments from people who either tried the app, or received an email from PhotoKeeper, after April 20, 2017. Is it now well-behaved, or is it still spam?



UPDATE, JULY 12, 2017: I've been snooping around the Internet, and I've found plenty of reports that confirm that PhotoKeeper is still spamming people.


UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017: PhotoKeeper disappeared from the App Store and was replaced by Photo Backup. This happened about two weeks ago. The text looks the same, and the creators are the original PhotoKeeper creators. Let's see if Photo Backup turns out to be spam as well.

UPDATE, DECEMBER 1, 2017: PhotoKeeper announced that they're going out of business as of January 31, 2018. See the announcement here.


  End of updates

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Beware of the PhotoKeeper app!

You may get an email from a friend — or perhaps from an address you don't even recognize — that says:
"Hi Ray, you just got photos!

You were granted access to photos by @jjb4929 because you're in their network.
Click to see 24 photos on PhotoKeeper. "

So you click on the link.

If you're on a PC, you go to a page that says:  
"We’re still working on a web viewer — sorry for the inconvenience. Meanwhile, you can view photos in the FREE app :)

Send a link to my phone →"

That's bait and switch, kids. Don't fall for it.

But if you're on a phone, clicking on the link takes you directly to Google Play or the App Store, so you can download the App.

STOP! Don't do it! Read the reviews!

Once you install the app, it immediately harvests your contacts list and sends to them the same message that it sent to you, offering to share YOUR photos with all of your contacts - if THEY will install the app.

That's classic virus spam behavior. It's bad. You will be sorry.

PhotoKeeper advertises itself as a good way to keep track of all the photos you have tucked into various electronic places. Maybe it does that. It may even be good at it. But a photo-management app shouldn't need access to your Contacts, and it DEFINITELY shouldn't be sending unsolicited emails to your Contacts without your knowledge or permission.

IF YOU READ THE REVIEWS:

Until a few minutes ago, among the 100-plus reviews were 19 five-star reviews dated September 30, 2016 and October 10, 2016. These were all one-line reviews that said things like "Good game!" and "Fun to play!" One even said "Good strategy game!" It's not a game, and the reviews were spam: totally bogus reviews put up there by PhotoKeeper's makers to inflate their rating on Google Play. The two reviews posted on October 11 also look bogus.

Some of the later reviews praise the app's "editing tools." These reviews are also bogus. How do I know? BECAUSE THE APP DOESN'T HAVE ANY EDITING CAPABILITY.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Think twice before you download PhotoKeeper. Maybe even think three times. There are other ways to manage your photos which don't involve surrendering control of your phone to a shady app backed by fake reviews.

p.s. I'm open-minded. I'm willing to be proven wrong about PhotoKeeper. I haven't installed it myself. After the research I conducted in order to write this blog entry, I chose not to.

Hello, Booz Allen Hamilton?

In my new position at work, I want to try out some software from a company called Booz Allen Hamilton. Using their own webpage, I've submitted two requests for either a trial copy of the software or a price quote. The first request was over a week ago; the second was this Monday, I think.

I've heard nothing. In the same time period, I have received and installed two competing software packages, and I've been contacted by a friendly and eager sales rep from one of the competitors.

Today I got junk mail from Booz Allen Hamilton. This is funny: they can't be bothered to set me up with a trial version of their software, but they've already harvested my address from my online RFQs so they can spam my mailbox.

Booz Allen Hamilton is a big company with big customers, and a gripe from one engineer in a medium-sized company won't make any difference to them. So I'm sure it won't bother them for a moment that I won't be giving their software any further consideration.

But at least I got this off my chest.

ProFlightSimulator: Getting to the Bottom of the Scam

I think I might know who's behind ProFlightSimulator. I found some interesting clues in an independent statistical report about this blog.

In doing research for a June 7, 2011 blog entry, I found that the PFS website was registered to a Cody Moya, of Short Hills, New Jersey. I didn't think much about it, as a lot of people use bogus entities to register their websites.

But today's statistical report showed that someone had come across my blog by searching for the keywords "cody moya scams." Seeing that name for a second time, especially associated with the word "scams," got my radar buzzing. So I tried the Web search myself.

As the plumber said about the clogged toilet in the cathedral: Holy crap.

It turns out that Moya makes a living out of repackaging and reselling free software. His wares are advertised using websites with a tone and style frighteningly similar to the tone and style of all the PFS websites we've seen. He is not without his detractors or enemies, however. A lot of people have written a lot of stuff about him, none of it good. According to these writers, once he gets your email address, he will send you an endless stream of email trying to sell you more stuff - and once he gets your money, you will never see it again. There's also some speculation that "Cody Moya" isn't a real person - kind of like "Dan Freeman" of PFS.

Here are some comments left on http://www.imreportcard.com/people/cody-moya:

"Products sold on his site are mostly owned by others and are of rather dubious quality. Give your Address mail to sign on as myself and I had to change my mail address because I was constantly bombarded with spam several times a day, otherwise your inbox will become a landfill of spam."

"I think this Cody Moya is not real, and you know everyday my email is full with his offers of spam email, and that is very disgusting. Also his product is a junky product and very, very worthless and I think this guy is a scammer. "

Two years before I ran across his name, an entry on The Scammers Manifesto reported that Cody Moya was nothing but a scammer. It's a short piece, worth reading for yourself.

And here's some of Moya's own advice, from one of his own blog entries called "Churning out eZine Content": (redirected from http://www.codymoya.com)

"Another little known and underused method in getting your own content is via public domains. If you are not familiar with the term “public domain”, “public domain” simply means anything that is NOT protected under US copyright law.

This includes ALL works published before 1923 and, under certain conditions, works published up to 1978. And in this case, we are referring “works” to written materials such as reports, articles and books. Republishing and repackaging public domain information can help you save time and effort from creating new ideas and content as they are readily available. On top of that, you do not have to pay royalties or copyright fees on that work.

If you fancy the idea of publishing content without any writing on your part, this method is for you."

I haven't yet figured out the connection yet between Cody Moya and ProFlightSimulator, but the similarities are convincing: a loudmouthed huckster, carefully hiding his identity and contact information, repackaging free software, hyping it and selling it for as much as he can get away with, then running away with the suckers' money. It's a 21st-century version of a con game as old as civilization.