Melissa virus is back

Once the Matcher arrives in the Outlook inbox, users are invited to open a file W32/Matcher which then unleashes a mass mailer Trojan. The worm also emails itself to every email address in the user's address book.

The .vbs (visual basic script) programme is hidden in the email with a message which reads: "Want to find your love mates!!!... Looks and Attitude Maching to opposite sex." The file attachment is called Matcher.exe.

According to anti-virus vendor Messagelabs, the worm originates from South Africa. So far the company has reported 83 viruses in the wild.

Mark Sumner, CTO of Messagelabs, said: "It's not as serious as Melissa or the Love Letter but we have given it a medium grading which means it is serious. The virus is similar to the Naked Wife reported in March," he said.

Sumner said most AV vendors should have already issued patches against the virus.