Or “Dear Lazyweb…” 

Someone from a large firm of property professionals visited one of my web sites today and filled in the feedback form under our contact details:

“I am working on behalf of … at … in Aberdeen. I was wondering if you could send confirmation of your contact details, such as your e-mail address. Thank you.”

“Hmm,” I wondered, “what can this be about?”

So I asked:

“Can we ask for what purpose?”

Now you’ll have already spotted the slight flaw in my plan, given I e-mailed them back (and included telephone details in the signature).

Nevertheless, a reply came my way:

“Hi Richard,

… was attempting to contact Nikki through this e-mail address
Nikki.{Lastname}@{afirmofarchitects}.co.uk but the e-mail bounced back. I am not sure what it was regarding but I can find out for you tomorrow as I believe he has been in meetings all day.

Thanks for your help…”

Who?

Anyway, I had a spare five minutes:

“Hi Emma,

Well I suppose contacting people at random from the Internet is one way of trying to get someone’s contact details.

I have no idea who Nikki might be but amazingly enough through skilful use of Google and the search string “Nikki {Lastname}” (cunningly gleaned from the bouncing e-mail address you had, and coupled with the possibility that she might be an architect from that address, I was able to find http://www.{adifferentarchitects}.co.uk/ and the e-mail address nikki.{lastname}@{adifferentarchitects}.co.uk

Stand in awe of my mastery of the Internet!

All the best,

Richard”