THIS IS A HOAX.
     
     I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW OPENING UP A TEXT FILE FROM EMAIL ACTIVATES A 
     VIRUS PROGRAM.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: E-mail Virus Alert
Author:  [log in to unmask] at internet-mail
Date:    5/6/96 2:03 PM


I received this e-mail from one of our engineers within Merix.  Watch out!
     
John Sharp
Merix Corporation, Forest Grove, OR
503-359-9300 (5-4351)
503-359-1040 FAX
[log in to unmask]
     
     
     
     
     
__________________ Forward Header__________________________________
     
Subject: Most recent Virus warning!!!!
     
Date:    4/24/96 9:59 AM
     
     
     I received this information from a friend who has encountered this 
     virus...
     
        "Beware of 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 OPEN IT, DO NOT READ IT, but DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY, no matter 
     who it says the sender is. It rewrites your hard drive, totally 
     destroying anything on it. Tell anyone you know who might be affected 
     by this, or anyone who is using the internet at work or home.
     
        The FCC released a warning two weeks ago 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 it's destructive capability. Other more well 
     known viruses such as "Stoned", "Airwolf", or "Michelangelo" pale in 
     comparison to the prospects terrifying, said the FCC, is the fact that 
     no program needs to be exchanged for a new computer to be infected. It 
     can 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, it will most likely be destroyed. If 
     the program is not stopped, the computer's processor will be placed in 
     an nth-complexity binary loop -- which can severely damage the 
     processor if left running that way to 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 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 -- 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 send-mail file, if it can find one. It will then proceed to trash 
     the computer it is running on. The bottom line here 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 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.