Virus hoax

They often include fake announcements claimed to originate from reputable computer organizations together with mainstream news media.

Typically, the warnings use emotive language, stress the urgent nature of the threat and encourage readers to forward the message to other people as soon as possible.

The song makes fun of the exaggerated claims that are made in virus hoaxes, such as legally changing your name or opening a rift in time and space.

This joke email claims to be authored by the Amish or other similar low-technology populations who have no computers, programming skills or electricity to create viruses and thus ask users to delete their own hard drive contents manually after forwarding the message to their friends.

The parody claims to be based on the concept of the Melissa virus, but with the aim of installing Linux on the victim's computer without the owner's permission.

It was supposed to first spread the virus to other computers, then download a stripped-down version of Slackware and uncompress it onto the hard disk.

The virus then reboots the computer, leaving the user facing the Linux login prompt with all their Windows security problems solved.

A hoax pop-up message warning of a computer virus, on a Compaq laptop