IMPORTANT:Some Wanker just tried to format my hard drive

There is a message posted at this newsgroup, which is titled

re:i was cleaning to excuse you some of my hea...

It threatened to format my Hard Drive but did not succeed (actually, I followed the instructions - it told me to pull the plug and I might save something) It's not done any lasting damage and I managed to clean up anything it (pathetically) tried to do using scandisk at startup. So chances are it might just be somebody taking the piss, though I wouldn't risk it if I were you

Do not open this file!!!!!!!!!!

I have noticed this message also, It is in fact HTML (web page) embedded in the mail message. It contains a bit of java script that if executed, causes a problem with your web browser. I think the message creates a scare but I don't think any damage is done. The HTML is wrapped up using an encoding scheme that disguises the contents, but you can read it. (Save the email as an HTML page, then use netscape composer to look at the page) I also noticed that Norton anti-virus email filter didn't pick this thing up as a possible problem.

As a general precaution, turn off javascript until you need to use it on a familiar web site. Its a sad fact that a lot of web developers these days assume that java scripting is always available, however it can still be used to do annoying things.

If you ensure that your email reader does not action javascript (possible in netscape) then you will avoid these things.

It is under all sorts of names.

Actually, it will not format your hard drive, it will just call up hundreds of graphic windows which resemble dialog boxes for Macintosh (not Windows, for some reason) using your web browser. all it screws up is your browser. Just force-quit the browser, get back it an erase the message.

This is the first email/NG bomb which has ever had any effect on my Mac, but since it uses antediluvian PC speak like 'Drive C' - which of course doesn't exist on a Mac - it hardly raises any worries about the 'formatting' going on.