We woke up to this text message the other day alerting us that our friend “Ashley” (last name removed for privacy reasons) had shared some photos with us. Only problem was, we’ve never actually met Ashley before, we talked with her once many months ago regarding a tip. Surely we were not on the best friends text message basis with her. Something odd seemed to be up.
When we googled the company we found rave reviews about how many users they were able to get in such a short period of time, insert PR TechCrunch article here, Fast-Growing Photo App Everalbum, A Chart-Topper On iOS, Comes To Android.
But after NOT installing this app, and reaching out to “Ashley” turns out, she said she never texted us any photos, this app was spreading like a virus in order to boost it’s user base. Look at these reviews.
1 Star – EverAlbum – Virus disguised as App? by DonPa777
How this App was ever approved by Apple has to make you wonder. Really?? Is someone asleep behind the wheel up there?
Essentially, this is a variation of a Ponzi Scheme with the App presenting a series of trip wires for those that are less cautious or tech-savvy than they could be. The invite leads most to believe it is a viewer to allow you to see your friend’s photo albums. It opens with an offer for free storage when you invite friends (1st red flag).
If you sign on with FaceBook without restricting access, EverAlbum hijacks your contact list and spams everyone you know with the same invite you received – but this time, in your name. Just Google “EverAlbum text scam” to view the uproar.
If you follow the bouncing ball, you will be paying a healthy, monthly fee; your photos will be on their server; and your phone will have more storage space because the App erased your photos – after you clicked on the “Free Up Space” button – because the screen allowed no other actions (other than retreating to the home screen).
What does EverAlbum do to ensure the quality and privacy of you hundreds or thousands of photos? Who knows?, because there is no website other than a direct back to the App Store listing.
The developer gets an atta-boy for smarts but loses points for lack of conscience and grubby-handed greed. Final ranking = Schmuck.
Apple – where were you when this package arrived?1 Star – Invasive by elearningfun
My friend downloaded the app and gave it access to her contacts, but without any further warning the app texted every single person on her phone contacts. Talk about embarrassing – people texted her back all day asking if her phone was hacked.
I also revived her text and downloaded the app to see what it was. Didn’t do premium or anything. I though I was just viewing my friends album. Instead it uploaded all the photos on my phone to their cloud service – AFTER I deleted the app! What the??? I wasn’t on wifi after I deleted the app and my phone service charged me for 2GB more of data because my photos were syncing on cellular data to who the heck knows where – AFTER I deleted the app. So I paid $30 friggin dollars in overage data within 12 hrs after this horrible invasive app
Everalbum is being written up all over for their spam tactics.
On the /r/iPhone subreddit, user Tiannahall wrote:
so yeah, I opened up a link to EverAlbum yesterday afternoon and clicked through.
[…]
EverAlbum spam texted every contact in my phone from 530am – 730am on a Sunday morning.
Another user on /r/photography, cogie:
Up till 5 AM this Sunday morning, I had no idea what everalbum was but I got a text message from a complete stranger saying I’ve been invited to see MY album on there and given a link. I was groggy and ignored it but then the next hour I got another text message with the same message and a different link so now I’m up and was going through their twitter and it seems I’m not alone.
There are other people complaining about getting SMS spam and there are others complaining that “one false button click” ended up sending junk to every contact on their list.