Shaleen, until you get a definitive answer on this I have a couple of things
to mention.  I have Norton Anti-Virus, and what it does is set up a server
between my mail and my OE inbox.  If something infected is sent to me Norton
grabs it before it even gets to me.  This makes me feel good, because I read
about a recent worm that you don't even have to open an attachment to get -
all that is required is viewing the subject line.  Of course, such
precautions are only as effective as the virus definitions my Norton is
aware of, so I run live update twice a day.

I have a weird problem with my OE (5.5) - most of the time when I receive
attachments it jams me up, and my ISP told me another way to get at my mail.
This is something you could do also so that you would be able to view
attachments without first opening them - go to:  http://www.mail2web.com/
and enter your user name and password.  Your new mail will be displayed
there and you can click on each one and the contents will be displayed.
That is, you will see the text and you will see if there's an attachment and
the name of the attachment.  It will not open the attachment until you click
to do so.  Unfortunately, going to mail2web will only help you if you do it
prior to opening your OE and your new mail is downloaded.  Once it is
downloaded into your inbox it won't show up at mail2web, so this isn't a
great solution for you.  Getting a good anti virus is better, and I hope
that someone else here will know the answer to your question, but in lieu of
anything else this will work.

Mary Mc Donald

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