Just got a strange E-mail from an address I don't recognize;

Subject: read it immediately
Text: classroom test of you?

which also has an attachment.

I immediately installed my PC-Cillin (I'd forgotten to after a recent hard drive format), updated it, and scanned. No viruses detected.

I saved the attachment to the desktop to check out the file type, and my system recognized it as a Dos application of some sort. I havent 'opened' it yet but.

Can anyone give me advise as to whether my 'cillin scan is reliable? I'm tempted to just dump it, but I have done some courses lately, so it 'may' be valid (doubtful, given the lack of description, I know).

Also, where would I report this; E-mail provider, Trend Micro?

What I do is to e-mail the person who sent it to me, and not open the E-mail until I have verified that this is an attachment that I have been expecting. I am pretty paranoid, but I have hear horror stories of people getting these nasty viruses, then not being able to get rid of them. I would verify with whomever sent it to you that this is safe, and was expected, then run a Virus scan on it. Run a scan on it from a different program but I would not open it if you do not recognize it. If it is from a school, it should say that in the e-mail . . .

From the subject it sounds very dodgy - I certainly wouldn't open it (but like RealGoober I tend to be paranoid about mail viruses as well - if in doubt delete works well for me). A lot of the current crop of viruses use spoofed email adresses and subject which this looks like 'classrom test of you' looks very made up.

Unless you are expecting it I would recommend applying the delete key at once.

Delete without prejudice. I delete everything even remotely suspicious. If you're really evil you can contact their ISP so they get a written warning or their account gets suspended.

When you say 'dos application', is it a .pif file? If so, then there is a virus circulating at the moment with a .pif extension (a .pif is executable). DO NOT OPEN IT. Delete it.

Don't bother reporting it - there will be millions of other reports.

delete it. if it is authentic: beat up the sender for sending mails without description.

delete it no doubt. if it IS legit (doubtful), then the user should know not to send it in such a suspicious manner.

It probably should be deleted. The greeting and message sound like one of the big three that's going around.

You can tell by going here (http://vil.nai.com/VIL/newly-discovered-viruses.asp) and checking through the descriptions. Compare the greeting, message and file extension with what McAfee has listed. Bet your gonna find it.

I would not email the sender without checking the virus list first. That will just verify a valid email address to a potential hacker. When that happens, you really get slammed.

Be extremely suspicious of any email from an unknown source. The writers of Bagle, MyDoom and Netsky are in a major "can -you-top-this" war right now and its wreaking havoc with the 'net

Delete everything suspicious. Losing a computer is not worth seeing a couple KB of text, or a little attachment.

The only problem with deleting them is that you might be deleting potentially useful information. I prefer to respond via. E-mail to the sender, make absolute sure that I know who sent the E-mail, THEN open the attachment. But ya, delete it if you suspect it might be a virus depending on what is written in the E-mail. And DO NOT OPEN IT, UNELSS YOU HAVE VERIFIED THE CONTENTS!!!, just to reinforce that crucial fact.

Tacit_Exit:

What ya got there is the Netsky.c@MM worm....do not pass go, do not collect $200...delete it!

Here's (http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_101048.htm) the reference and information on the Network Associates site.