WRITTEN ON July 10th, 2009 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

Hmm. Weird one. Would love an explanation and direction from the experts out there. Today I received this email:

From: “Alan Olding” *alamo@waitrose.com*
Date: 9 July 2009 11:57:26 GMT+01:00
To: Ruth Kennedy
Subject: DVLA Prize draw

Hi, What is the closing date for the DVLA SEAT IBIZA car please, it is not to be found by me online. Regards, Alan.

Obviously I do not know this person. I did renew my car license online fairly recently, including ticking the ‘oh, go on then, I don’t mind winning a SEAT IBIZA’ box (why, oh why?). So how has this person got my details? Has he got my email address from a ‘secure’ govt website? Would something scary or irritating happen if I were to reply to the email? And most critically, why does he think I would know the answer to my Q?