In 1999, the Melissa virus was a widely publicized:

Solution (By Examveda Team)

Melissa is a macro virus which spread very fast. It was distributed through email attachment that when opened, it disables a number of safeguards in Word 97 and Word 2000. And if user has and Outlook email program causes the virus to be resent first 50 people in each of the user’s address book.

It does not destroy files or other resources but it has potential to disable corporate and other mail servers as the ripple of e-mail distribution becomes a much larger wave. On Friday, March 26, 1999, Melissa caused the Microsoft Corporation to shut down incoming e-mail.