The "News from Neverland Ranch" is bleak, concerning a "suicidal attempt" by Michael Jackson. Click on "Read more" to find out more details--and to promptly get suckered.

The email is a Trojan horse--the latest attempt by virus writers to use celebrity to lure unsuspecting computer users into their traps. This time the bait is speculation that Jackson, on a tense verdict watch in his child-molestation trial, is about to crack.

Steven Sundermeier, vice president of products and services for Central Command, which makes Vexira anti-virus software, has seen it all before.

"If I counted the number of times Osama bin Laden has been found alive, I'd run out of fingers," Sundermeier said Friday.

No matter what the emails say, though, the al Qaeda leader has not been captured. And Michael Jackson, by all accounts, has not been felled by a "suicidal attempt."

Although the pop star has been in and out of the hospital for a stress-related bad back since jury deliberations began June 3, Jackson is otherwise fine, his camp insists.

The "News from Neverland Ranch" dispatch--also known by the subject line, "Re: Suicidal aattempt [sic]"--tells a different story.

"Last night, while in his Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson has made a suicidal attempt," one version of the grammar- and spelling-challenged message reads. "They suggest this attempt follows the last claim was made against the king of pop. 46 years old Michael has left pre-suicid [sic] note which describes and interpretes [sic] some of his sins."

The viral email has been making the rounds since at least Thursday, said Dominic Wild, security analyst for Sophos, the anti-viral and anti-spam software company.

Wild said that because of the virus' insidious nature, many computer users might not know yet they've been infected. But Sundermeier said there was nothing to indicate the bug had become widespread.

"This is probably getting attention right now because they're exploiting Michael Jackson," Sundermeier said.

Exploitation is what nefarious-minded spam is all about--whether it's exploiting holes in security systems, or exploiting our collective sugar tooth for celebrity news.

"Virus writers use anything in the media that's in the forefront of people's minds," Wild said.

Hence, viruses named after download favorites Anna Kournikova, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts and more.

"Britney Spears was every fourth peer-to-peer worm," Sundermeier said. "Her rank has now kind of shifted over to Paris Hilton."

Though Jackson's reign as the self-appointed King of Pop all but ended a decade ago when he first faced allegations of molestation, his current troubles make him newly attractive to virus makers. Last October, an email titled "Michael Jackson Home Movie Horror" promised pictures of the singer engaged in "un-natural acts" with a boy. Then as now, the attached zip file was nothing but a virtual backdoor through which a hacker gained access to a gullible Netizen's computer.

That the scam artists would jump on a morbid angle such as a Jackson suicide attempt doesn't surprise Sundermeier. "They're not the most upright citizens to begin with," he said.

And soon, Wild said, they'll tire of Jackson altogether. "They'll probably find somebody else," he said, "some other story to attach the virus to."

Jackson, meanwhile, had bigger concerns than computer viruses, with jury deliberations stretching into their sixth day. Despite frenzied reports of SUVs racing out of Neverland around noon Friday, there were no verdicts. The jury panel, led by, in the words of NBC News, a "very methodical" foreman, quietly concluded its workday in the afternoon, letting this cliffhanger run through another weekend. Deliberations are scheduled to resume Monday.

The 46-year-old entertainer is charged with 10 counts of molestation, conspiracy and plying a child with wine and alcohol. He has pleaded innocent to all charges.

Elsewhere, in a potential new Neverland melodrama, the Michael Jackson Fan Club News Service, which claims a close association with the singer's camp, sent out an email Friday, claiming prominent Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Bain had been fired as the star's publicist. Bain did not return a call seeking comment.