ExSimGuy - you wonder how people get addresses.
It's amazing how the same things crop up in different guises!
Viruses (virii?) usually want to do one or more of 3 things:
1) Cause damage to your system
2) Gather information
3) Cause damage to other systems
First of all we had code to do all this, then the clever guys realised they could also cause havoc by disseminatibg the virus hoax e-mails, rather than going to the trouble of writing the real virus.
Think about it. You get a plausible sounding e-mail that warns you about a virus, and exhorts you to forward the e-mail to all your contacts. If you do so, it's a bit like a chain letter building up. It may not damage your machine, but if enough people forward it on then the mail system becomes clogged up. Also, after the mail has been forwarded quite a few times, it builds up quite a long list of e-mail addresses - great for someone down stream who gets it and can them use the information to start spamming you.
Now the clever guys are realising they can also achieve the same results with the opposite - that is an e-mail telling you that something isn't a virus, but is safe. What a hoax!
So, beware. Don't blindly forward mails, and if you do forward something do everyone a favour and strip off all the previous recipients addresses