Scam Email: Alice Drew - Still Sending Email

We anticipated that the "Alice Drew" scammer would not go away, given we know this particular scammer successfully got money out of some artists last week.

It seems the key to my making their lives miserable is to post their names and emails as widely as I can and then just educate as many artists as I can to google the name BEFORE they send any money or artwork. And these alerts will be showing up in google results. That seems to be the key that is beginning to work.

The twist I didn't like about the below email was it would appear Alice Drew is going through Facebook pages and emailing artists. Ack!

Here is an email I received this morning from an artist:

Thanks to your site and list of scammers I caught this one before it went too far!

It seemed too good to be true and very strange. Sure is!

Thanks for the site, saved me!!

See here:

First Email:

On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 12:13 AM, Alice Drew [alicedrew1@live.com] wrote:
Hello,
I am Alice drew, an American but I live and work here in Australia. I want to place an order in your store,and i will like to know if you ship to Australia,my method of payment will be credit card. So please let me know if i can proceed with the order,And please do not forget to get back to me with the website address where most of your product can be seen. So I will be able to make my choice of items and get back to you with list of items needed.I will await your prompt response as soon as you receive this mail

Thanks with regards
Alice

Second Email:

Hello,
Thanks for getting back to me on time, Please find below for the list of items needed and get back to me with the quote asap.

Edward Ruscha
Sweets, Meats, Sheets
1975
6 color screenprint with varnish overprint
32 3/4 x 25 7/8 inches
83 × 66 cm
Edition 3/55
QTY:1

The Lost Night, Graphite on paper, 43 x 78 Inches
QTY:1

Please get back to me with the total cost estimate for this order so that i can make my payment via my visa or master credit card.
Like i stated in my previuos message i am an American but I live and work here in Australia and I want these products here.
Do not worry about the shipping, I will make arrangement for the pick up of these items from your place thru my shipping agency.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW THE GRAND TOTAL WEIGHT OF THESE ITEMS FOR SHIPPING REASON.
Alice

The Anatomy of a Successful Scam

I'm posting this so others can learn from what happened here.

I was so so sad to receive an email tonight from artist who unfortunately fell for the scam recently sent under the name of Alice Drew. I'm not writing this to make that artist feel bad. It is NOT about that. It is about using his experience so others can learn and be fore-warned. It is about my little obsessive-compulsive mission now to spread the word about these scammers and make their lives much less rewarding. And that is why I'm so disappointed to learn that this scammer made at least some money in their efforts last week. It makes me want to double my efforts to thwart them!

While this woman admits english is not a language she is strong at, just focus on the details of how this scam proceeded - so that you never find yourself in the same place.

Dear Kathleen,

Thank you for your blog.

In my husband case, Alice used real person name in Australia, and when we first got her e-mail we check her name and we saw real Alice Drew in Australia, her picture, her job, + next day, when she ordered, she gave us her credit card info, and we charged, it went through but it will be cleared on Monday.  I told my husband to make sure we get the money, then we send the money to her shipping agent.  But she was very rushing, and he felt bad to tell her we don't pay for shipping company unless the money cleared, so he took his own money, send the money to Malaysia. This is the story between thursday and Friday.

Today, we got more order with very expensive shipping fee to send to Malaysia from ALICE. Sia, my husband already sent $520.00 to the shipping agent of Alice Drew in Malaysia on Friday afternoon.  Then They ordered more art pieces, asked him to send shipping money to Malaysia agent again.  Alice said this time, shipping costs $1,300.00.  Then Sia started feeling somethings wrong because they want to combine the shipping to Australia, using her personal shpping agent in Malaysia. Alice ordered total 6 flat prints, mideum size, there is no way the shipping for 6 flat prints will be $520+ additional $1,300 together.

Sia checked ALICE DREW name again on web and he found your blog. Wish he founded earlier. But at least we found out.

We called Western Union. They said the money already cashed in Malaysia. They told us to make Police report for Malaysian Police and LAPD. We called Malaysian Police, but they told me they only accept the police report at the police station.  I explained Malaysian Police Officer we are not the only one to get this fraud.  More people in US must be going through right now. He said he will talk to his superviser and get me back by e-mail.  I am  doubt about it 80%.

Still, we are going to LAPD tomorrow to make Police report.

He was very excited about getting orders from over sea through his website because it is not usual for us. Artists are very simple. We didn't think about this would have been happened to us. Now we are telling all our art district artists in Los Angeles. I am Japanese, my English is not good enought to tell people what happened from ALICE but I keep my voice laud in my facebook, anywhere I can.

Thank you very much for your blog.

Scam Email: Alice Drew

Here is one received this morning. Sent to an artist but didn't bother to personalize enough to identify them as such. It is a common one floating around (same email, just name and email address altered) and one of the silliest approaches - so these scammers are interested in placing an order but too freakin' lazy to google the website address??? I also never get their persistence in horrible formatting.

From: Alice Drew [alicedrew1@live.com]
Subject: Placing An order!!

Hello,
I am Alice drew, an American but I live and work here in Australia. I want to place an order in your store,and i will like to know if you ship to Australia,my method of payment will be credit card. So please let me know if i can proceed with the order,And please do not forget to get back to me with the  website address  where most of your product can be seen. So I will be able to make my choice of items and get back to you with list of items needed.I will await your prompt response as soon as you receive this mail

Thanks with regards
Alice