What would you make of the following message in your inbox, Sorry, should be in Relationships but am in too much of a hurry to find it.

[2sugars]

i loved your profile and I think we can be friends.

just hit me up on msn messenger i am [email protected]

???

Oh, dh had one of these yesterday. Tis spam.

Are you quite sure wg? Have just confronted him with it. Why would I get that? I only email my mum and friends.

I would maybe think they were referring to a dating profile if I had any suspicions/gut feel. Just as likely to be spam.

Email back and say where did you see my profile?

No don't email back unless you want to be bombarded with spam of this kind. I get loads of this on my yahoo account and I am def not signed up with any dating agencies!

Unless you have other reasons to be suspicious, let it go.

Did it say any more than that? Dh's had a load of drivel about being given his name by friends and also said not to reply to email address but use messenger instead.

Was it just to you?

I did email back, saying lovely to get your email, hope we can be friends too &c. Am shaking as I type this.

Spam. Look here (post of 05-24-2008, 11:55 PM), for example.

It's spam... I get hundreds of these a week, some with pictures attached.

Yes, it was just to me, but then we share the same email addy. And he's refused to let me have the password on his new PC.

Also here (the 27 May, 04:08 email).

It's def spam though, 2sugars - either that or Jane May is a VERY friendly girl. Have you clicked P&L's link?

its spam.

i get several a day telling me i'm a hot guy.

It's deffo spam - but do you have reason to be suspicious?

And there's lots of ways your email can get on spammers list... you may have signed up to something that sold it onto a third party, a forum post (where email is displayed/accessible) can be scraped, IM and email viruses can also harvest email addresses (remember, doesn't have to be YOU that has the virus, can be one of your friends), etc.

why are you so suspecious? are there other issues i nthe relationship?

oh i always get things like that and i have no interest in dating! they are usually to me not dp as i am the daft that spends time filling out competions and giving my email to any one and every one. does you/your dp do that much? could explain it easily

i even get some from asian beauties or something quite frequently to my yahoo address! i wouldnt worry about it

How do you download msn messenger? Just googled it at nothing Microsoft-like came up.

MSN.com

Messenger is on the left underneath the word "Welcome"

But it's spam. You shouldn't even reply. Just delete stuff like that without opening.

I get these all the time, dont worry about it, I get ones inviting me to meet local women too

Now you've emailed back you can expect a lot more spam, as you've confirmed (a) that it's a live email address, and (b) that you are [sorry] gullible enough to reply to spam.

But no... don't contact the spammer.

Ah yes - you have emailed back. Prepared to get THOUSANDS of spam emails now. Get yourself decent spam software pronto or you'll drown in the stuff.