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Recent variants of the MyLife worm have incorporated false assurances in the form of an appendage to the email message which reads,

========No Viruse Found========
MCAFEE.COM

Such tactics underscore the problems inherent with any message that carries a disclaimer noting that the email has been examined by "Scanner XYZ" and found to be free of viruses. Indeed, if the legal beagles were to get involved, such a message would necessarily have to be changed to read something along the lines of, "as of (insert date here), this message was scanned by (insert product name here) and based on that date and the signature definition files and product version that were in use at that time, there did not appear to be any readily recognizable malicious code found within. Disclaimer: (insert product name here) can only detect viruses for which the appropriate signature file has been created, distributed and properly implemented and even then only in file types for which (insert product name) has been pre-programmed to scan. Therefore, no guarantees can be made regarding the safety of this email or of the attached files, if any. Further, (insert sender's name) and (insert vendor's name) assume no liability in the event that the email message or attached files, if any, should be infected with any virus, whether known or unknown."

Sort of loses its marketing edge when stated this way, doesn't it? In fact, such messages, however worded, are never any guarantee of safety and should never be taken at face value. Indeed, as seen with the MyLife worm, such messages can be an outright fakery. Even in the best of circumstances, when the message is legitimate, it simply means that there was no virus detected for which the product used was capable of detecting. Things like how up to date the scanner in use was, whether a new virus might have been introduced for which even an up to date scanner would miss, or if the particular attachment type is even included as an extension to be scanned are all variables over which the receiver has no control and no knowledge. In short, it's as meaningless as the message included with the MyLife worm.