This is a warning about a virus which has affected Outlook and e-mail called
the Mellissa Virus.  If you receive an e-mail with a subject reading " This
is an important message", delete it immediately.  It may come under the name
of someone you know since it takes the name from your address book.  It can
attach itself to any file which, like a parasite, goes along for the ride to
infect 50 other people.  CNN had a report on this today.  The below report
was taken from C/NET at
www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,3433400.html?tag=st.cn/sr1.dir.
 
The virus, W97M_Melissa, uses a combination of Microsoft Word macros and
Microsoft Outlook to send a list of 80 pornographic Web sites. It works with
either Word 97 or Word 2000, according to antivirus companies TrendMicro,
McAfee, and Network Associates.
 
The program is somewhat devious in that it sends itself from the email
addresses of people who are likely to be familiar contacts, arriving as
email with the subject line "Important message from..." followed by the
sender's name. The body says "Here is that document you asked for ... don't
show anyone else ;-)." The email includes an attached Word file "list.doc,"
which includes the porn sites' addresses.
 
The virus doesn't appear to cause any damage to infected computers except in
rare cases when the minutes of the current time match the date--for example
at 4:26 p.m. on March 26. In this instance, the virus will insert the Bart
Simpson quotation, "Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty
points for using all my letters. Game's over. I'm outta here," into a user's
active document.
 
Because the virus sends itself to potentially thousands of contacts
contained in a user's address distribution list, however, there's a
possibility that the virus could overwhelm mail servers.
 
John L. Jacobs
Seffner, FL
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