Smilies / MalWare????

I have been sending emails containing occasional smilies (like the ones to the right) for quite some time, with my SBC Yahoo! email. A guy that I frequently email told me that his company's security group told him that smilies contain MalWare. I think he was mis-informed or misunderstood. I believe that there are companies / sites that host smilies that contain a lot of MalWare when you visit, but I don't believe that the smilies them selves do.

Any comments / suggestions / corrections????? :eek:

I suspect what they're referring to is apps like Smiley Central, which installs no less than 12 other apps along with it. That sort of stuff is evil.

The plain old built-in emoticons in mail clients, or just attaching your own images, should be fine.