Bad Times

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Bad Times is a computer virus hoax sent out by e-mail. This "virus" does not actually exist, and the "warning" is meant to parody the alarmist message that spread the hoax of the Goodtimes virus hoax.

The "Badtimes" email followed the principles of "Goodtimes", by warning of the horrible consequences that the alleged virus could inflict. However, "Badtimes" attempted to make itself implausible even to people unfamiliar with computers, although it started by claiming that the virus would wipe the victim's computer hard disk drive: implausible claims that "Badtimes" made included using subspace field harmonics to scratch any CDs that the victim attempted to play, drinking all the beer, and leaving dirty socks on the coffee table when the victim expected company. [1] Some versions of "Badtimes" claimed that the virus replaced lunch meat with Spam, while making the victim's cologne and perfume smell like pickled cucumber. [2]

It is unclear whether the "Badtimes" email can be classed as a joke or a hoax: in June 2006, Sophos acknowledged that "Badtimes" meant to parody virus hoax emails, but nevertheless advised against forwarding the joke email, in case the recipients misunderstood the threat to be real. [2]

The hoax inspired a musical version, by the group Laika, where the female lyricist recites the contents of one of the versions of the virus.

The "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Virus Alert" contains several similar claims in its lyrics.

Related Research Articles

The Goodtimes virus, also styled as Good Times virus, was a computer virus hoax that spread during the early years of the Internet's popularity. Warnings about a computer virus named "Good Times" began being passed around among Internet users in 1994. The Goodtimes virus was supposedly transmitted via an email bearing the subject header "Good Times" or "Goodtimes", hence the virus's name, and the warning recommended deleting any such email unread. The virus described in the warnings did not exist, but the warnings themselves were, in effect, virus-like. In 1997 the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective announced that they had been responsible for the perpetration of the "Good Times" virus hoax as an exercise to "prove the gullibility of self-proclaimed 'experts' on the Internet".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technical support scam</span> Type of fraud and confidence trick

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References

  1. Greenspan, Todd (17 March 1998). "Here's my favorite "VIRUS WARNING"". GNU Operating System. Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Badtimes". Sophos. Abingdon. 8 June 2006. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2022.