Strange message in my Mac Mail

Factual Questions
1

I recieved this in my mailbox today:

Is this for real? Can I really not delete this, or did someone send me something fishy? I have had this account for quite a while, and I have never gotten anything like this before.

For the record, I use Mac’s Mail program, and use OsX

2

Sounds like b.s. to me. I use two diferent Mac machines, both using the Mac mail software. I’ve never seen such a thing. If there was a hyperlink involved in that email, then I’m guessing someone was trying to download a bug to your Mac. Odd as that sounds.

Cartooniverse

3

Thanks for your quick response Cartooniverse. There was no hyperlink in the email. I got the strange email, and then I read this article about Mac hackers. Way to make someone paranoid! I hope it’s nothing I should worry about.

4

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=+DELETE+THIS+MESSAGE+FOLDER+INTERNAL+DATA&num=100&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=DON+T+&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=lang_en&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off

229,000 English pages

5

That’s really fabulous that there are 229,000 english pages about this email, but it none of it really makes any sense to me.

Does it make sense to you? If so…please translate.

6

Ha! Found something, let’s hope it’s right :). Thanks for your help guys/gals (??).

7

It’s a placeholder. Don’t worry about it. You probably access your mail through POP, and when the POP client retrieves the messages on the server, it leaves this message to indicate how many messages you’ve already seen in the mailbox. Next time it goes and gets mail, it only gets messages that are newer than that one.

(those may not be the exact semantics, but it’s something along those lines – it’s a piece of data that the POP client leaves in the mailbox because it has no other central place to store data)

(Note: it’s also safe to delete it)

8

Thanks ntucker. You sure are swell!

9

A better Google search with actual information

Seems like it’s innocuous.