FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS!!!!
(Not!)

What's the Problem? - Examples

Last updated 12/9/96

What's the Problem?

Here's a pretty paradox: emails which warn you about something and urge you to forward the mail to all your friends are most often best ignored, and even if they are not hoaxes can cause more trouble than the problem they were supposed to solve.

In general it is irresponsible to write an email chain letter, because such letters tend to waste bandwidth, eat up space on mail servers, and waste the recipients' time. Such emails tend to fall into three classes:

classic "chain letters" which promise good luck if you forward them to ten other people who in turn are supposed to forward them to ten more, etc. (imagine the geometric growth of that one!),
outright hoaxes, such as the "blue star tattoo" LSD scare and the "GOOD TIMES" and "PENPAL GREETINGS" virus hoaxes, and
well-intentioned but ultimately annoying letters such as the "rec.music.white-power" and "save Sesame Street" vote campaigns.

A responsible, legitimate wide-distribution email will have certain crucial elements:

A date associated with the problem it addresses,
A specific point of contact for questions and responses,
Widely available supporting references, such as online government publications.

I have never seen a responsible, legitimate wide-distribution email, although I have seen plenty that aren't. In general, if a problem is severe enough to warrant sending email to the entire online community it will also be in the front page news or on CNN, and thus will not require dissemination online.

In general, you should be skeptical of any email you receive which:

warns you of an immediate threat from an ordinarily innocuous source (LSD in children's rub-on tattoos, email which erases your hard drive, etc.),
urges you to distribute copies of the message to everyone you know,
does not supply you with a specific point of contact for questions (generally an email address or web page URL)

If you receive such an email, before you forward it to anyone, first use a web search site such as:

to search for key words and phrases in the email. Very likely you will find several pages devoted specifically to the legitimacy of the email you received. If you find that the mail is a hoax, you might consider mentioning the fact to the person who sent you the email, and asking that they notify the person who told them, etc. (*not* the same as a chain letter, since it funnels one person at a time back to the top).

These sites have more information on specific hoaxes, clues that a message is a hoax, and the adverse effects of continuing to distribute such messages:

The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) Internet Hoaxes page.
Rob Rosenberger's Computer Virus Myths page.

Examples

These are examples of bogus or outdated email that has been making the rounds.

The "GOOD TIMES" Virus Hoax

This one is so well-known it has a FAQ. The email takes several wildly variant forms, the common theme being that an email with the subject line "GOOD TIMES" will erase your hard drive if you so much as read it. Here is an example:

----Begin quoted material----

Subject: New Computer Viruses
     
FYI:  Public Service Announcement
     
Please spread the word.   Very Important!!!
     
Please be aware:
There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet. If you 
receive an email message with the subject line "Good Times", DO NOT read the 
message, DELETE it immediately.  Please read the  messages below. Some 
miscreant is sending  email under the title "Good Times" nationwide, if you 
get anything like this, DON'T DOWN LOAD THE FILE!  It has a virus that 
rewrites your hard drive, obliterating anything on it.  Please be careful and 
forward this mail to anyone you care about.
 WARNING!!!!!!!  INTERNET VIRUS
The FCC released a warning last Wednesday concerning a matter of major 
importance to any regular user  of the Internet. Apparently a new computer 
virus has been engineered by a user of AMERICA ON LINE that is unparalleled 
in
its destructive capability. Other more well-known viruses such as "Stoned", 
"Airwolf" and "Michaelangelo" pale in comparison to the prospects of this 
newest creation by a warped mentality. What makes this  virus so terrifying, 
said the FCC, is the fact that no program needs to be exchanged for a new 
computer to be infected. It can be spread through the existing email systems 
of the Internet.
     
Once a Computer is infected, one of  several things can happen. If the 
computer contains a hard drive, that will most likely be destroyed. If the 
program is not stopped, the computer's processor will be placed in an 
nth-complexity infinite binary loop - which can severely damage the processor 
if left running that way too long.  Unfortunately, most novice computer users 
will not realize what is happening until it is far too late.
     
Luckily, there is one sure means of detecting what is now known as the "Good 
Times" virus. It always travels to new computers the same way in a text email 
message with the subject line reading "Good Times". Avoiding infection is 
easy
once the file has been received simply by NOT READING IT! The act of loading 
the file into the mail server's ASCII buffer causes the "Good Times" mainline 
program to initialize and execute.
     
The program is highly intelligent- it will send copies of itself to everyone 
whose email address is contained in a receive-mail file or a sent-mail file, 
if it can find one. It will then proceed to trash the computer it is running 
on.
     
The bottom line is:  - if you receive a file with the subject line "Good 
Times", delete it immediately!  Do not read it"  Rest assured that whoever's 
name was on the  "From" line was surely struck by the virus. Warn your 
friends
and local system users of this newest threat to the Internet! It could save 
them a lot of time and money.
     
Could you pass this along to your global mailing list as well?

----End quoted material----

The "PENPAL GREETINGS" Virus Hoax

This is a variation on the "GOOD TIMES" hoax. Once again, you are warned that an email (this time with the subject line "PENPAL GREETINGS!") will trash your hard drive if downloaded.

The PKZIP300 Legitimate Trojan Horse Notification

There really is a PKZIP300 Trojan horse. It really is bad. But the chances are pretty astronomical that everyone you know has heard of it. Further information is available from Symantec. In general, when downloading a well-known software package such as PKZIP, it is best to ftp it from the authors, in this case PKWARE.

----Begin quoted material----

Subject:  New and Dangerous Virus For your information ...
     
DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY FILE NAMED PKZIP300 REGARDLESS OF THE 
EXTENSION  (see attached)
     
We work closely with the military and received this message from a very 
reliable source in DC this morning.  A NEW Trojan Horse Virus has emerged on 
the internet with the name PKZIP300.ZIP, so named as to give the impression 
that this file is a new version of the PKZIP software used to "ZIP" 
(compress)
files.
DO NOT DOWNLOAD this file under any circumstances!!! If you install or expand 
this file, the virus WILL wipe your hard disk clean and affect modems at 14.4 
and higher. This is an extremely destructive virus and there is NOT yet a way 
of cleaning up this one.
     
REPEAT: DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY FILE NAMED PKZIP300 REGARDLESS OF THE  EXTENSION.

----End quoted material----

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