%%File: VIRS0408.TXT
%%Name/Aliases: Good Times, GoodTimes, Good_Times, xxx-1
%%Platform: PC/MS-DOS
%%Type: Vaporware Virus; not real., 
%%Disk Location: 
%%Features: 
%%Damage: Denial of service due to large numbers of e-mail messages 
warning others about the virus.
%%Size: 
%%See Also: 
%%Notes: " "Good Times" virus is an Urban Legend"  from CIAC Notes 04c

In the early part of December, CIAC started to receive information 
requests about a supposed "virus" which could be contracted via America 
OnLine, simply by reading a message.  The following is the message that 
CIAC received:

Here is some important information. Beware of a file called Goodtimes.

 Happy Chanukah everyone, and be careful out there. There is a virus on
America Online being sent by E-Mail.  If you get anything called "Good
Times", DON'T read it or download it.  It is a virus that will erase 
your
hard drive.  Forward this to all your friends.  It may help them a lot.


THIS IS A HOAX.  Upon investigation, CIAC has determined that this 
message originated from both a user of America Online and a student at a 
university at approximately the same time, and it was meant to be a 
hoax.

CIAC has also seen other variations of this hoax, the main one is that 
any electronic mail message with the subject line of "xxx-1" will infect 
your computer.

This rumor has been spreading very widely.  This spread is due mainly to 
the fact that many people have seen a message with "Good Times" in the 
header.  They delete the message without reading it, thus believing that 
they have saved themselves from being attacked. These first-hand reports 
give a false sense of credibility to the alert message.

There has been one confirmation of a person who received a message with 
"xxx-1" in the header, but an empty message body.  Then, (in a panic, 
because he had heard the alert), he checked his PC for viruses (the 
first time he checked his machine in months) and found a pre-existing 
virus on his machine.  He incorrectly came to the conclusion that the E-
mail message gave him the virus (this particular virus could NOT 
POSSIBLY have spread via an E-mail message).  This person then spread 
his alert.

As of this date, there are no known viruses which can infect merely 
through reading a mail message.  For a virus to spread some program must 
be executed. Reading a mail message does not execute the mail message.  
Yes, Trojans have been found as executable attachments to mail messages, 
the most notorious being the IBM VM Christmas Card Trojan of 1987, also 
the TERM MODULE Worm (reference CIAC Bulletin B-7) and the GAME2 MODULE 
Worm (CIAC Bulletin B-12).  But this is not the case for this particular 
"virus" alert.

If you encounter this message being distributed on any mailing lists, 
simply ignore it or send a follow-up message stating that this is a 
false rumor.