First of all, the file in question, line.tga is not actually a part of Recount, it is part of a library which Recount utilizes called GraphLib. In order to confirm your scanning result with Avast, I've scanned the Recount directory using McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5.0i and everything turned up clean. I would guess that due to the volume of traffic it receives, Hotmail uses a very simple type of virus scanning technology for attachments, possibly simple enough that it only looks at file names.
I have a few recommendations:
- Use WowAceUpdater to update as many of your addons as it can both at home and at work.
- Disembed the Ace2 libraries which some of your addons (including Recount) are using so that you don't have libraries duplicated in each of the addon's "libs" folders. WowAceUpdater helps facilitate the process of disembedding, current versions will actually download most of the required dependencies for any addon that you update. You can also select the !!!StandaloneLibraries addon which contains a single copy of all well established libraries.
Regarding your questions:
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1. Is this Recount line.tga file a virus?
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Probably not.
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2. Has anyone ever encountered an addon being a virus?
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Personally, no. Addons themselves are mostly nothing more than text or images which are not executed in a manner that could be exploited by a virus.
Names of extremely popular addons such as KTM or CTRaid are often glued onto viruses in the hopes that this will help them spread. You have to be smart enough to catch these fakes.
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4. How were you able to check and see that there is a Virus Addon
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Antivirus software on your local machine can generally be trusted to detect viruses. You could browse through the .zip files that addons are distributed in and look for files with extensions like .exe, .pif, .scr that have no business in an addon. It is generally wise to avoid any .exe files that you encounter when downloading an addon, though some addons are distributed as "self-extracting" executables.
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5. What means of protection do you use in order to avoid getting a viral addon on your computer?
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Be smart. Download from trustworthy sites such as WowInterface.com which individually verifies (by a real person) each file uploaded to the site before it is made public.