Philip Jamison just had an unpleasant experience:

"My computer was infected by the worm "Happy99.exe". This virus plays
with your e-mail and is self-replicating (places itself in the e-mails
you send and also interferes with news groups). Just make sure you do
not open a file by this name."

MMDer Dave Smith also reported an incident.  By using the Alta Vista
search engine for "Happy99", Dave then found several web sites with
information about how to combat the problem.  Extracts from an article
about a similar Trojan horse are below.

Please don't forward a chain letter about a presumed computer virus
or Trojan horse if it's not known to be a fact (i.e., it happened
to _you_).  Most of the time the dire warnings are untrue, and they
constitute "spam", flooding the Internet with malicious falsehoods.
See the remarks about "Virus Hype" at http://www.av.ibm.com/

Robbie Rhodes, MMD

 = = =

http://www.av.ibm.com/BreakingNews/HypeAlert/Show/

antivirus online: PICTURE.EXE, SHOW.EXE, WHATEVER.EXE: If it's suspect,
don't run it!  [snip]

Neither of these programs run automatically when you open your mail,
nor do they format your hard disk, infect your boot records, install
viruses, or give you athlete's foot.  Both of them can be avoided very
simply, by following the common sense rule that we always harp on here:
if you get a program in the mail, and you don't know the sender, or you
weren't expecting a program, DO NOT RUN IT, just delete it.  Then it
can't hurt you.

We are reluctant to put out warnings about, or analyses of, particular
Trojan horses, because we don't want you to get in the habit of
checking with us before deciding whether or not to run a suspect file.
We've warned you about PICTURE.EXE and SHOW.EXE just now.  Does that
mean that if you get a SNOOZER.EXE in the mail, it's OK to run it,
since we haven't warned you about it?  NO !

Regardless of whether or not a particular file that you get unexpected-
ly matches some file that you've seen a warning about, you should NOT
run it.  It's not worth the risk.  It's trivial for an attacker to
change the name or size of a Trojan horse, or write a brand-new one,
and then send it to everyone on some huge mailing list.

If you just say No to such files, you're wise.  If you rely on warnings
of particular files being dangerous, you're putting yourself at risk.
So be safe, and delete unexpected programs WHATEVER their names.  Your
bits will thank you for it...