Email address gathering enquiry emails

Companies legitamately gather email addresses for their mailing lists through competitions, sign up for newsletter forms and so on. There is also a large number of amusing emails and jokes that are sent from person to another in the form of viral advertising, often these include a section where you can add the email addresses of your friends.

Mailing lists can then be used for personal marketing by these companies and also sold on to other companies. Mailing lists are worth a considerable amount of money, hence various efforts made to capture our email addresses.

Holiday cottage owners will frequently receive such emails which try to obtain your email address if it's concealed on your website. An example is shown below:

Date:  Thu, 18 Nov 2010 From:  jill <[email protected]> 
To:  XXXXX
Subject:  Query Re. holiday cottage

Your Name: jill
Message: please tell me cost for January 2010 1st to the 14th for to adults please, we are in our 40s and like your property. thanks Jill

These types of emails will almost always be for dates already booked (if you have a calendar displayed on your site).