Creativity Magazine

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

By Mrstrongest @mrstrongarm

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Now who’d steal low-res 72dpi images of Mark Armstrong illustrations, post them in an online store, and offer to sell you a nice print of same?
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
If you answered: “Only the filthiest, most greedy evil rotten no-goodniks,” you’d be right.
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

In this case, a lowdown dirty outfit called statloveov.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

URL: https (colon, slash, slash) statloveov (dot) live.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Guess what the name of the store is?

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

“Online Store.”

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

But the only name you’ll actually see on their site is “Shop.”

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

And if you have a question about your order, well, sorry, no phone number, but you can email them at… hot (at) examfreevs.com.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Hmm…

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Long story short: statloveov (dot) live is a scam. Buy anything from them and you can just kiss your money goodbye.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Here’s the backstory:
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

I have a couple of Google Alerts set up that notify me of any online references to “Mark Armstrong” or “Mark Armstrong Illustration.”

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

I got one the other day titled “Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell By Mark Armstrong.” It caught my eye because I’d recently posted a caricature of Norman Rockwell on my Facebook page.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

The alert looked peculiar because it referenced a site called escapeauthority (dot) com.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

I clicked on the alert and here’s what came up:

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

(Click for larger view)

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
They stole my image and were advertising it for sale as a print. They even used my name.
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Bold as brass, as my dear old grandmother used to say.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

They gave it a rating of 5 stars— gee, thanks fellas, you miserable thieving scum!!

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Here’s the original August 29th post on my Facebook Page—
I assume that’s where they got it.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

(Click for larger view)

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Thanks to Google Alerts, I’ve since discovered they’ve posted other images of mine like this Christmas cover.
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

(Click for larger view)

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
I tried typing “Mark Armstrong” into their Search window. I was curious to see how many of my illos they were offering for sale. But it only managed to bring up Louie Armstrong records, Armstrong Flooring products, and a Dog Lovers’ Quilt by a Carol Armstrong.
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Look at all the good stuff you can buy from “Online Store” (below). How about an Alchemy ATLAS bicycle for only $52.50?? Quite a bargain considering you’d have to pay at least $12,500 for the same bicycle on the Alchemy site.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

(Click for larger view)

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Here’s what their About Us page looks like. Note the poor grammar.
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

(Click for larger view)

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
They “only sell new, unopened, unused products that order us directly from the manufacturer.” Uh-huh.
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

“Order us directly” must be a new slang expression for “steal.”

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Their “powerful customer service team” keeps an eye on things and “sticks to its guideline.” I guess its guideline is not supplying a phone number customers can call, just a dubious email address.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

I googled their street address: 4315 Benedum Drive New Paltz NY 12561.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

The first item returned was: “Statloveov Life [sic] Scam Or Genuine…” Clicking on it took me to a findings page posted by a company that investigates suspicious online businesses.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Their conclusion: statloveov.live is a scam. Red flags included:

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

–Lots of heavily discount products (consistent with multiple scam sites)
–hot (at) examfreevs.com email address appears on multiple scam sites
–No phone number
–Website name different from domain name

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
What to do?
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

It’s true that artwork is automatically copyrighted as soon as an artist creates it, but to pursue legal action, I’d have to register the images with the United States Copyright Office.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

I’d also have to hire an intellectual property lawyer, and my instincts tell me it would be more time, trouble, and money than it’s worth— which is probably what scammers count on.

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Artists can file a takedown notice with the server or whoever is supporting the scam website. (At the bottom of the statloveov site, it says: “Powered by statloveov.live.”)

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
I used hostadvice to try to identify the real host of the statloveov site, and got this very interesting result:
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

“statloveov (dot) live is hidden behind CloudFlare… it is impossible to tell who is hosting this website, because it is hidden behind CloudFlare proxy. No tool on the internet will be able to tell you the hosting company for this website.”

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly
It turns out that Cloudflare does not— technically— host websites; it provides “content delivery network services” to those who do host websites.
Beware: Phony Shopping Site Using Art Stolen From Yours Truly

In 2018, the European Union’s Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List identified Cloudflare as a notorious market which engages in, facilitates, or benefits from counterfeiting and piracy.


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