I'm talking about the source that the server sees, not the pages the user sees after processing by the server. Len Jim wrote It would appear that you were looking at a dynamically created page. Specifically, a Cold Fusion created page. Since it is processed on the server, it outputs a blank line for every line of CF code. This can be turned off in CF administrator.
Any error messages displaying anything in pound signs is CF code.
So, while I don't doubt the source code is bad, a bunch of blank lines is not a stupid trick to hide source code as you have postulated. As for the errors, it sounds like they need a little help with their CF code.