Passing on messages about these hoaxes serves only to further propagate them. No existing virus has the characteristics ascribed to it. Since then, it has traveled the Internet electronic mail system, spreading fear wherever it crops up. The message about Good Times is just convincing enough that people share the news with all of their friends. Needless to say, it has propagated itself well over the years.
Reports appear most often around the major holidays when e-mail and letter mail usage is highest.
In September 1996, Penguin Books published a press release announcing the publication of an interactive novel called Irina. Various part of this press release led some readers to believe that a new virus was spreading over the Internet and World Wide Web. Penguin Books published a second press release soon after, but the word had already spread beyond recall. There is currently no virus that fits Deeyenda s description. News about this supposed virus has spread through Internet electronic mail, apparently from a student at Carnegie Mellon University.