A guy I know recently started getting daily emails from eHarmony, a dating site.
In their defense, yes, they are quite correct as to the facts of the matter. He’s recently single, but had been in a relationship, showing that he has an interest in romance at least in general, and he’s not got anyone right now. And better still, they can be confident that he’s not getting back together with her.
Or, as he put it: “They couldn’t even wait for my wife to be dead for two weeks.”
Classy. While this may be an extreme case, it highlights quite clearly the distinction between “we know this person is at least conceptually likely to be in the market for a product like ours” and “we should start emailing this person a lot.”