The Bud Frogs Screensaver Trojan Horse/Virus Email Warning Is A Hoax

Last significant update: 5 May 1999

This information can be freely reproduced in any medium, as long as the information is unmodified.

Note: This hoax often travels in conjunction with the BUDDYLST hoax.

The Bud Frogs Screensaver hoax has been around for a while, but the first report we received from a U-M email address occurred on 16 July 1998. Thanks to Sheri Bacon for bringing the first sighting of this at U-M to our attention.

A couple of comments that tip off the fact that this is a hoax:

• Merely downloading anything won't activate a virus
• There is no verifiable source to check to see if this alert is valid
• There is a "Chicken Little" element: the originator screams at you to spread it far and wide (but please don't!).
• It's in ALL CAPS.
• It warns about losing everything.
• [Interesting that the posting refers to a "creepoid scam artist"; takes one to know one, I suppose.]

Still, it is always a good idea to reject all unsolicited attachments, and at the very least to use a top quality antivirus scanner to check all attachments you get from trusted sources.

Here's the text of the Bud Frogs Screensaver Trojan/Virus Hoax:

 DANGER! VIRUS ALERT!
  
  THIS IS A NEW TWIST.  SOME CREEPOID SCAM-ARTIST IS SENDING OUT A VERY 
  DESIRABLE SCREEN-SAVER {{THE BUD FROGS}}.   IF YOU DOWN-LOAD IT, YOU'LL LOSE 
  EVERYTHING!!!!  YOUR HARD DRIVE WILL <<>> CRASH!!
  
  DON'T DOWNLOAD THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!  IT JUST WENT INTO 
  CIRCULATION ON 05/13/97, AS FAR AS I KNOW!!
  
  PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS WARNING TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE... 

Recently we've seen this with a slight modification in the initial text:

Someone is sending out a very desirable screen-saver, a Bug's Life -
"BUGGLST.ZIP"

This is a combination of the text of the BudFrogs hoax with the name of the BUDDYLST hoax. How pathetically creative.

This does illustrate a point, though -- these things morph from time to time.

Please do not forward this -- or any other hoax -- to all your friends.

Instead, you should reply to the sender -- and as far back up the email chain as you have energy -- informing the originators that this is a hoax. For this particular hoax, I suggest that you provide a pointer to this URL (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/hoaxes/budfrogs.html)
For virus or hoax info, please see our main page (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/) or go to another reputable site, like DataFellows (leaving our site).

   -BPB

visits to this page since 16 July, 1998 12:00 EDT