After the success of the W97.Melissa virus in 1999, mass-mailing became the next big thing in viruses. This trend continues even today. Different methods have been tried over the time, but they fall mainly into two categories: exploits and social engineering.
Perhaps the most successful example of social engineering came on May 4, 2000 when VBS.LoveLetter called inboxes everywhere just to say “ILOVEYOU". At that time, curiosity easily outweighed security, especially with such a provocative subject line. Many people opened the email and then clicked on the attachment named "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT[.vbs]" (the .vbs part being hidden by default on many systems). The resulting mess spread across the world during that same day, and...
