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? 🤔

Oh go on, do it! 😂

I received one of these from an old friend. The reason they hadn't been in contact for a very long time was because they'd died. I attended their funeral. I played along asking if it was hot down there and was surprised she had broadband, etc. Low and behold, about five messages in they had a wonderful opportunity...

If I wanted to start a conversation (to get the gossip) but also wanted to acknowledge that she hadn’t spoken to me for months before she left, I would reply and just say “Did you mean to send this to me?”

MLM. They hit up everyone in their address book. I've had it - the sister of a lady I used to board my horse with. I thought it was a bit odd, but we'd had the occasional pleasant exchange and she'd come with us to a few events, but I didn't really know her. A few years later (and after the horse had moved elsewhere) she messaged me, so I messaged back and was hit with the 'you would be perfect for my new venture...'

Block and delete.

My guess is definitely MLM. I’d have to engage to find out. Just click on any dodgy links they send or give away your credit cards details. 😂

She wants something.

I would have to reply only because I’m nosy 🤣🤣🤣 and report back to us as
intrigued too 🤣

Oh I couldn’t resist replying with something daft like “ So good to hear from you.I lost touch with most people when i went to prison..now Im out Ive been looking for somewhere to stay where THEY can’t find me ( you know who I mean right?). Any chance I can crash at yours?”

😂😂

😂😂

100% this.

@coolmum123 just because it says sent from iphone doesn’t mean it’s hacked. But how did she get your email address? Does the email say ‘Dear yourname’ or something vague?

She's prob had my email address from when we were all back at school as that's the email I used on the class list. She says Hi and my name says she not sure if I still use this email address but that if I do a big hello then goes on about waiting to hear back before updates.

In real life I would ignore it. If it happens that she is moving back and wanting to reconnect then when you see her for real I would just feign ignorance and pretend I’d never seen the email.

For the purposes of entertainment tho I like the idea of stringing her on then reporting back… :D

Having read the messages here - I am tempted about responding and seeing how it goes!! I'll have a bit more of a think about whether to or not and decide a bit later.😁

Oh god please reply! Over invested now I have read the full thread!

I have a friend who suddenly stopped speaking to our group about 6 years ago. I met her randomly last year and I told her I would always be there for her. I meant it, I know she has MH problems and I think she may be under the control of her DH.
If she ever gets things straight she will still have a friend.

Yep. MLM. I had this from a mum from the PTA years ago. Our kids were way apart in ages and she’d moved to a different county but she asked me to meet for a coffee as she wanted to discuss a ‘Business opportunity’. As we were both sort of in the same field of work I assumed it was legit. She’d also chosen a local hotel to meet up in so it all seemed plausible. What followed was an hour of complete batshittery from someone who I thought had been quite professional and was trying very hard to recruit me into selling face creams I had zero interest in. It was like she’d been lobotomised. She was absolutely unaware of the utter tripe she was spouting and was desperate for me to ‘just take the kit to see how I got on with it, blah blah blah’ when I absolutely wouldn’t take it she got very agitated and ‘couldn’t understand why I’d pass up such an obvious no-brainer wealth creating business’ I don’t know what number someone had done on her but it was akin to joining the moonies…This was back in the day during the first iteration of the MLM ‘mumprenur’ shite. Never heard from here again. I often wonder what happened to her.

Definitely ignore unless you fancy a free coffee 😂

I would respond- I think it sounds genuine as she refers to some specific things regarding how you've known each other.
There's quite often posts on here from people who have no friends or find it really difficult to make friends. If she's been abroad for a while, she may have neglected all her friendships back home and is having to start from scratch again.
I'd probe a little bit to find out more in the first instance

I really hate MLM and what it does to people. I've had the misfortune last year to say yes to a skincare party because I thought it would help a friend out as she was struggling from paycheque to paycheque. I'd felt it was churlish of me to keep saying no. Irritatingly my friend put us all on a whatsapp group for it.

Dear Lord. I ended up having to leave and then block the representative because the private messages bombardment got totally out of hand.

My friend loves the stuff apparently. At least she's hosting the parties several times a year so I assume she does.

Oooh reply and see what she says next. I vote Jehovah’s Witness.

I’m voting for crypto.

Sadly, I would say MLM too.

I had a message from an old friend, teaching colleague and family holiday with her and our DC’s.

Initially, my ‘awh, that's nice, haven't heard from her for ages’ kicked in. Then I read the message!

Was I still working? What were my plans for leaving? How I could experience success? ( I am a headteacher).
How she had never been so successful….(eh? …from school teacher, to ski chalet/holiday owner/business…to senior leadership school member….to Temple Spa consultant 😂..)

Brainwashed and batshit. Looking at her SM it is like a cult. Matching outfits at an awards ceremony, glowing positivity from other TS consultants. She will be convinced she is going to make me a success through TS…😆

It made me really sad and I felt quite ‘used’ .

Not sure why my reply is hidden. Does anything mentioning an online virtual currency get blocked now? Because that’s the MLM or equivalent I think the OP’s old friend is in touch about.

Totally!