Very good advice from the previous posters on this thread. Another tool available is snopes.com, a website devoted to presenting information about viruses, urban legends, scams, etc. This site can be fun to read and gives a lot of useful info. Some points snopes.com makes about the Hallmark virus is that it is an old virus scam and it is not as powerful as most of the emails circulating might imply. However, it does require the user's action to fire it up, by clicking to another link. How dangerous that is may depend on how good your virus protection is. I have good virus protection, good firewall, etc., but last year my computer was reduced to a blue screen pile of useless rubble. Virus protection is necessary but may not always protect you. At least check whatever reference you trust before clicking that link. Happy holidays, Don Eastwood Hillsborough