Unfortunately, most novice computer users will not realize what is happening until it is far too late. The warning itself is infinitely loopy. And for the nth time, the Good Times virus does not exist. It is a fraud, a cyburban legend, nothing more than an electronic chain letter. Many computer security experts are reluctant to dismiss Good Times as strenuously as it deserves, fearing that such scorn will only rile some virus writer into creating a real Good Times virus.
Goodness knows, there are already plenty of viruses around that are more worthy of concern.
For example, the planet is inexorably spinning toward another March 6, the one day each year when a virus called Michelangelo pops to life. It can cause damage, but almost any antivirus program will catch it and kill it. To me, it would be stupid not to run a virus checker. There are too many ways to get viruses today. Christensen pointed to new generations of viruses and so-called Trojan Horse programs that can travel on the Internet and other computer networks, in some cases attached to electronic mail or documents that are downloaded from the net.