Let the Good Times Roll

There are a few poor sick people out that are smart enough to write a virus. Than there are the ones who are too dumb to write a virus and start this crap. This joke is several years old. However like most jokes, it's only old if you never herd it before.

The real danger is this message speaks of 2 viruses. The first one is a joke the second one is real. When given a warning keep your guard up, and ask one of the many pros out here. Most are kind enough to let you know if it is real or just bad taste.

When I fell for it, MANY people were so kind as to give me this address. Its well worth the time. Also can save you from embarrassment.

This is a copy of the message that I got:

Subject: Virus WARNING Author: Charles Messina at RANC014L Date: 10/2/96 9:55 PM Please note the following and pass the message to everyone you know.

Hello, everyone! This message is extremely important. It is about a very highly intelligent virus that is being spread nationwide called "Good Times". Once you have read this message, please forward to anyone you care about.

Thanks.

SUBJECT: [Very Important !!! ]

There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet. If you receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Good Times", DO NOT read the message, DELETE it immediately. Please read the messages below.

Some miscreant is sending e-mail 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.

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 e-mail 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 e-mail 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 e-mail 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?

DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY FILE NAMED PKZIP300 REGARDLESS OF THE EXTENSION

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

1997 update. Well its a couple of days from Thanksgiving. Almost made it a year this time, but "Its BACK".

Subject: supervirus

Dear friends,

WARNING!!!!!! If you receive an e-mail titled "JOIN THE CREW" DO NOT open it! It will erase EVERYTHING on your hard drive! Send this letter out to as many people you can ... this is a new virus and not many people know about it! This information was received this morning from IBM, please share it with anyone that might access the Internet. Also, if anyone receives mail entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!" please delete it WITH OUT reading it!! This is a warning for all Internet users -- there is a dangerous virus propagating across the Internet through an e-mail message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!". DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY MESSAGE ENTITLED "PENPAL GREETINGS"!! This message appears to be a friendly letter asking you if you are interested in a penpal, but by the time you read this letter, it is too late. The trojan horse virus will have already infected the boot sector of your hard drive, destroying all of the data present. It is a self-replicating virus, and once the message is read, it will AUTOMATICALLY forward itself to anyone who=B4s e-mail address is present in YOUR mailbox! This virus will DESTROY your hard drive and holds the potential to DESTROY the hard drive of anyone whose mail is in your in-box and who=B4s mail is in their in-box and so on. If this virus keeps getting passed, it has the potential to do a great deal of DAMAGE to computer networks worldwide!!! Please, delete the message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!" as soon as you see it! And pass this message along to all of your friends, relatives and the other readers of the newsgroups and mailing lists which you are on so that they are not hurt by this dangerous virus! Please pass this along to everyone you know so this can be stopped. PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS. WARNING!!! This is a new virus going around in the last couple of days! DO NOT open or even look at any mail that you get that says: "Returned or Unable to Deliver" This virus will attach itself to your computer components and render them useless. Immediately delete any mail items that says this. AOL has said this is a very dangerous virus, and there is NO remedy for it at this time. Please Be Careful, And forward to all your on-line friends A.S.A.P. Forward this A.S.A.P. to every single person you know!!!!!!!!!

Here is another page about the 1998 one

Win A holiday Virus Hoax Warning