[dsr_]

Also, nobody uses my first name in their subject line except people trying to sell me something.

And the only people using my first initial as my first name are people who scraped Linked-In.

[gus_massa]

I use the name in the first line when there is some people in the cc (or bcc :) ) but it's a request for someone in particular:

> Hi John!

> Can you send me X for the Y project?

In particular when the people in the cc (or bcc :) ) don't have the info about X but is interested in Y.

(I use also "Hi everyone!" when I want to make it super clear that the email has been sent to a lot of persons.)

[dsr_]

You sound like a perfectly reasonable person, rather than a scammer.