of course it's a real one. If it wasn't, there would have been about 18 gazillion posts and e-mails about it.

"If you get into the habit of running a virus-checker over any attachment before you open it - especially *.exe and *.doc files, you'll minimise your chances of picking up a virus."

I could not agree more. with the following addition - I would say .exe and ANY MS-office (.xls, .ppt, .doc, .ddb )or VISUAL BASIC files(.vb*)