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?

If you answered: “Only the filthiest, most greedy evil rotten no-goodniks,” you’d be right.

In this case, a lowdown dirty outfit called statloveov.

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

Guess what the name of the store is?

“Online Store.”

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

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

Hmm…

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

Here’s the backstory:

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

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.

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

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

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They stole my image and were advertising it for sale as a print. They even used my name.

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

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

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

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Thanks to Google Alerts, I’ve since discovered they’ve posted other images of mine like this Christmas cover.

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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.

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.

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Here’s what their About Us page looks like. Note the poor grammar.

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They “only sell new, unopened, unused products that order us directly from the manufacturer.” Uh-huh.

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

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.

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

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.

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

–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

What to do?

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.

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.

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.”)

I used hostadvice to try to identify the real host of the statloveov site, and got this very interesting result:

“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.”

It turns out that Cloudflare does not— technically— host websites; it provides “content delivery network services” to those who do host websites.

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.

A notorious market is a website or physical market where, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), large-scale intellectual property infringement takes place.

One begins to understand why it’s so hard to go after scammers, and why they endure.

I’d appreciate your sharing this post and helping to spread the word on statloveov and similar scams. It won’t put them out of business, but it will raise awareness.

At some future point, someone else is sure to google “Is statloveov a scam?” When they do, I want them to find this post and know the answer is YES.

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About Mark: I’m an illustrator specializing in humor, branding, social media, and content marketing. My images are different, like your brand needs to be.

You can view my portfolio, and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Questions? Send me an email.

Follow @mrstrongarm