This is a famous address book hoax.

[Kevin J Ward]

John Diefenbach posted what looks like a great coup against viruses that
would use your address book to send themselves to all your friends and
contacts.  But take a moment and read this synopsis of a posting on the
TRUTHORFICTION website I mentioned earlier.

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 Add An Entry Named !0000 or AAAAAA to Your Address book To Avoid
Spreading Viruses-Fiction!

This message includes a tip to help avoid spreading viruses.  Since many
viruses automatically e-mail themselves to people in your address book,
create a new entry that will foil the attempt.  Give the new entry the
name of !0000 or AAAAAA and do not put any e-mail address in the entry.
That way it will be the first in the address book. When a virus tries to
send itself to every address, it won't get very far because the familiar
error message will appear that says it could not be sent because of
either a missing e-mail address or a bad address.

The Truth

The virus experts we have checked with say this piece of simplistic
advice did not come from anyone who knows about viruses and that it
should not be relied upon.
Many viruses will send themselves to any valid e-mail addresses that are
found in the address book regardless of whether there are also invalid
entries.

Many computer owners have tested the "!0000" suggestion by creating an
e-mail that is addressed to several recipients, including the "!0000"
entry.  The progress of the e-mail will be halted because one of the
intended recipients does not have a valid address.  Self-propagating
viruses, however, do not normally create a single e-mail to a group of
recipients that is halted if one of the e-mail addresses is invalid.
They create individual e-mails that are sent to one recipient at a
time...therefore all the valid e-mail addresses do receive the virus.

  Also, some viruses such as the "SirCam" virus have their own e-mail
software included so they will not be using your e-mail program or
hindered by any of it's error detection or messages.

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