'Win a Holiday' – Old Virus Hoax, Brand New Name
Dateline: 03/07/98Judging from the number of copies that have landed in my inbox over the past week, this is the hottest "new" virus hoax on the Net:
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Subject: FWD: VIRUS WARNING ! If you receive an email titled "WIN A HOLIDAY" DO NOT open it. It will erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this letter out to as many people as you can. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it. This information was announced yesterday morning from Microsoft; please share it with everyone that might access the Internet. Once again, pass this along to EVERYONE in your address book so that this may be stopped. |
The name may be unfamiliar, but the hoax is hardly new. The above warning is almost a word-for-word copy of a bogus alert that began circulating in early 1997 under the title "Join the Crew." Here's what last year's model looked like:
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VIRUS WARNING !!!!!! If you receive an email titled "JOIN THE CREW" DO NOT open it. It will erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this letter out to as many people as you can. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it. This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM; please share it with everyone that might access the internet. Once again, pass this along to EVERYONE in your address book so that this may be stopped. |
Both alerts are concurrently in circulation and have equal validity – i.e., none.
The CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) of the U.S. Dept. of Energy has stated:
For a virus to spread, it must be executed. Reading a mail message does not execute the mail message. Trojans and viruses have been found as executable attachments to mail messages, but they must be extracted and executed to do any harm. CIAC still affirms that reading E-mail, using typical mail agents, can not activate malicious code delivered in or with the message.
You're most likely to encounter mention of "Win a Holiday" or "Join the Crew" as part of a combination alert – very fashionable these days – meaning that you get two (sometimes three) hoax warnings for the price of one. Typically, the accompanying alert warns against opening email messages with the subject header: "RETURNED OR UNABLE TO DELIVERY [sic]." Don't take it seriously.
If you receive any version of these warnings, ignore it and please don't forward it to anyone else. If you really want to be a good Netizen, reply to the sender and inform him or her that they're spreading false information.
For more information:
- Win a Holiday
Hoax report from Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center - Join the Crew
U.S. gov't information page on the "Join the Crew" hoax - Good Times Virus Hoax FAQ
History and genealogy of "Good Times" (the granddaddy of all email virus hoaxes) and its copycats
