Spam and viruses aren't the same thing. Not that I'm suggesting that spam never contains a virus, so Hotmail's advice (if I've understood right) is very dangerous. But I think their intention is that you send them the text from stuff like HTML-formatted attachments (I get a lot of SPAM in HTML only). This is still really bad advice. Even opening an HTML message can create security problems, like silently sending your email address to a web site somewhere, or downloading a javascript that exploits a weakness in Outlook/OE.

Anyway, if you want to report spam to someone who might be able to do anything about it they will need the headers, not the contents of the message. With a bit of luck, they show the route it's taken over the net.

Mr Red - viruses that try to destroy AV programs have been around for many years. Nothing new about that.

Anahata