Kirsty Bosley: Unsolicited email – or a chance to find love?
When I opened my inbox on Monday morning, there was a few newsletters, a handful of FYI emails and an unexpected outpouring of adoration from someone called Mirian.
'I will like to establish a true relationship with you in one love', claimed Mirian. 'Please send email to me. I will tell you more about myself including my picture. Thanks and remain blessed for me'.
Now, as much as I'd be open to establish a true relationship with someone in 'one love' (heck, who isn't open to that?), I'm not entirely sure whether Mirian was serious. So I deleted the message and that was that.
I have messages like that quite often, and I can bet that you do too. It's not because I'm some unstoppable mega-babe to whom strangers cannot resist confessing their love.
It's because the world's full of greedy guts, fishing for a bite from a lonely, vulnerable person.
Just this week, I read about a woman called Sarah who had been on the Dr Phil show in America asking to be united with the love of her life.
Though she's never met the man, Sarah has sent him £900,000 to help get him to the US to be with her. Chris is apparently from Milan, but works in South Africa.
His accent, she told Dr Phil, changes often, but she believes his story to be an honest one – he's stuck in Africa and needs money to leave the country.
She says: "I am 95 per cent certain that Chris is telling me the truth."
The pair have been in touch for 18 months and talk every day, sometimes for hours at a time.
Naturally, the world is cynical. Including, I'm sad to say, me. The double divorcee cannot see that she's being scammed, giving away her life savings to pay for this Chris's hotel bills, lawyers, nannies and credit cards.
"I still believe in love," she says, and I could just wrap her up like a human tortilla and hug her. The poor woman has so much faith in the honesty of others that she's bet everything she owns on it.
What a gamble. Material things are transient, but being in love isn't.
And Sarah has effectively spent nigh on a million pounds for 18 months of feeling utterly loved.
Money well spent? Not in my opinion – I'd rather travel the world, enriching my life by meeting new people, seeing different things and eating like a queen.
But it's each to their own. She's not spending our money, is she? I think many people have taken quite a lot of joy this week from mocking this woman for her 'stupidity'.
I think she's been daft, but can't get any joy from mocking her. I just feel terrible, and I hope she doesn't live to regret it.
Maybe one day Chris will arrive in the US and he and Sarah will live happily ever after. Perhaps we'll all be snickering on the other sides of our faces then, eh?
Until then, I'm seriously considering emailing Mirian. Maybe we can pick up a really good conversation about my life here?
Maybe, if I play my cards right, I can get Mirian to pay for that trip around the world I want. All expenses paid?
I too still believe in love. And I really love holidays.