Out of the blue email

[coolmum123]

I received an email from a school mum whom I knew about 10 years ago. Wouldn't say we were friends, did have coffee a couple of times, chatted at the school gate kind of thing. During the final year of school she suddenly stopped chatting or even just saying hello which I thought was really strange but then concluded that as the family was moving abroad she didn't really want to keep in contact with anyone as she was just 'passing through' and she hadnt really got on with most of the mums anyway.

Anyway I've suddenly received an email from her saying hi and also that she would wait for me to respond before she updated me on what they had all been up to 😳.
My initial thoughts are why now? When it was pretty clear she wanted nothing to do with anyone from the school then.
Why does she think I would be interested in an update?
Is it a hacked email?

If I responded it would be polite but then do I really want to open that door?
I guess my conflict is between do I just ignore or should I be polite and respond? 🤔

Agree, hacked. Ignore.

Ooh I think it's very tempting to respond. It sounds like she has gossip, but then again she may not and it might be all about her new life abroad 😆 It's quite an old school way of catching up regardless of what she wants to say isn't it? Is she on social media at all? Or perhaps you aren't? It doesn't sound like spam to me but it does sound like a strange way to catch up these days.

Delete

Possible hacking. Otherwise, you'll need to ask her rather than us. Nobody is psychic.

No and whilst I haven't checked I don't think she is on SM as she was quite anti back then

Delete. Wouldn't bother.

The email did say sent from iPhone. I don't have iPhone so don't know whether you can hack something so it says that?

It's either a hacker or she's started a MLM.

What's an MLM?

Multi level marketing, Forever Living, Amway, Herbalife etc. She'll be trying to sell you something. I had an old Uni friend contact me out of the blue after several years. After a few initial pleasantries he tried to sell me life insurance.

A few weeks ago my Mum got a message on messenger from someone she hadn't spoken to in years. Again after a few pleasantries wanted to tell her about 'a wonderful opportunity' to make some money investing in something or other. Turned out her actual friend had been hacked and it was a fake profile.

Yep. This happened to me.
School mum I used to have a few exchanges with asked to speak to me out of the blue. She came over then started to sell me some stupid cosmetic.
I was pretty pissed off.

might be moving back and trying to connect, or as above MLM selling

Does her email address look legit?

The email address is one that she used in school correspondence re events etc. I found some old emails from class reps and that is the email she was using and responding from in UK.

Does she use your name, or mention her kids names etc?

If not, probably hacked.

If so...not sure.

I'd be tempted to ignore, although curiosity may get the better of me and I'd just send a brief, polite reply, and see what she came back with.

My name is used in the hello bit.
No mention of other names. Just a hope you and family are well kind of thing

MLM.

It's the fact she said she specifically said she'd wait for a reply before updating you. Almost sounds like a business transaction from the outset. She doesn't want to come out with the fact she wants to sell you something in the first email because she knows it's unlikely you'd reply.

A genuine wanting to connect email would surely ask how you are, acknowledge it had been a long time and maybe provide a brief update date about themselves. Just sounds off.

A genuine wanting to connect email would surely ask how you are, acknowledge it had been a long time and maybe provide a brief update date about themselves. Just sounds off.

This. I think it's pretty rude of her to contact you out of the blue without any kind of update or reason why. I wouldn't respond. I also think it could be spam as I used to regularly get emails from an address that was very similar to a friend but I knew it wasn't her sending them.

I didn't include all the details in my original message but she did acknowledge it had been a long time since we had been in touch. However even when I read it the first time its eemed quite formal. But I don't know if that's how she communicates as I didn't really know her or regularly email her years ago.

I think I am going to ignore it. Thanks everyone

You could ignore it...

---or, as it sounds like it's genuinely from her, you could reply, string her along a bit and keep us posted...

yeah this.

ignore.

😂😂
My DD said the same! Lol**

If I was sure it was her, I'd just say hi how are you? Get the reason she contacted you then ignore it.

I'm currently in the mindset that ten years ago is past life territory. Especially if she ignored you for a year.