Sadly it is not. It is, like most things, all about the money. There are three main targets for computer viruses these days. The first is to compromise the infected computer as a "bot" that can be used to produce spam or as part of an attack on other computer networks (distributed denial of service or DDOS attacks). These work by having the many, many infected computers all contribute a little bit to the attack. Multiplied over the tens of thousands of systems connected to high speed internet connections these attacks can be crippling. There was an organized DDOS attack against a former Soviet republic last year that actually knocked the entire country off the internet for a while.

The second target is identity theft and just general theft. Those viruses act as collection points, logging everything you do on your computer and sending details to a home base. If they can get your login to your banking site or similar then you're done.

The third is corporate espionage. It is amazing what you can find out if you "lose" a USB key in the parking lot outside a large company and then wait to see what happens when the person who finds it plugs it in and it phones home.

The first two above are reported to be in heavy use by organized crime syndicates. With sufficient volume - which they have - they actually seem to be rather profitable.

Things have come a long way from the initial pranks and worms out there 30 years ago.

If your email system is allowing this type of message to make it to your inbox then it is time to reconsider your email solution. Any reasonable company should be operating systems to intercept and quarantine viruses such as this, both for corporate and home users.