The email will contain the subject line:
Important Message From {user name} and the message body will be: Here is that document you asked for . . . dont show anyone else ;-). The virus then attaches
a copy of the infected active document to the outgoing mail.

When an infected document is opened from a local drive, or when a Microsoft Outlook attachment is opened - with macros Enabled - the virus will do the following: 1. In the case of Word 2000, the virus sets the Security Level of Word 2000 to lowest level (Level 1). In the case of Word 97, the virus disables the Tools/Macro menu commands.
2. The virus then checks if it has successfully installed itself onto the system by comparing the Windows registry key. If the Melissa? key value within the
KEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\registry equals:...by Kwyjibo the virus knows it has successfully infected the system. Users can verify if they are infected by checking this registry.
3. The virus will run Microsoft Outlook and directly use the MAPI functions to retrieve the current user profile and password for server logon. 4.
The virus will access the Outlook client address book and send to each recipient in the book (and to as many as 50 recipients on user email address list) a new email message with subject: Important Message From {user name}, saying Here is that document you asked for ... dont show anyone else ;-) as the email body text. An infected W97M_MELISSA document is also sent out along with these email
messages.
5. Finally, if the day of the month is equal to the minute (for example, if it is March 29 at 5:29 pm), the virus will insert the following text on the active document: Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Games over. Im outta here.