explain annoying "You have XXX mail messages"

[Lowell Gilbert]

Fernan Aguero <fernan at iib.unsam.edu.ar> writes:

> The default mailbox (/var/mail/fernan) is empty, since I
> use procmail to deliver messages to several different
> mailboxes under ~/mail.
> 
> Still, I keep receving this message all the time. Right now
> it says I have 50 messages. What are they? Where are they?

# echo $MAIL

should tell you...