Messages are spreading across social media that warn of an apparent virus “Dance of the Hillary”. The warnings assert that the virus will “format your mobile” and that it was announced today on BBC radio. Many variants claim it will appear to look like a video.
A number of slightly altered versions of the warning exist, and it is spreading primarily through Facebook. You can see an example of the warning below –
Please inform all contacts from your list not to open a video called the “Dance of the Hillary”. It is a virus that formats your mobile. Beware it is very dangerous. They announced it today on BBC radio. Fwd this msg to as many as you can!
Collected 2016
Please inform all contacts from your list not to open a video called the “Dance of the Hillary”. It is a virus that formats your mobile. Beware it is very dangerous. They announced it today on BBC radio. Fwd this msg to as many as you can!
Massive Ransomeware attack…Total 74 countries affected…Please do not open any email which has with “tasksche.exe” file. Please send this important message to all your computer
Collected 2018
However, the warning is fake and has been spreading since 2016. There is no such known virus currently spreading that matches this description “Dance of the Hillary”. If the warning seems familiar, it is because it is nearly identical to another fake warning that circulated in 2015 describing an alleged virus called “Dance with the Pope”. That fake virus warning also claimed it would format your mobile and that is had recently been “announced” on the radio. That warning also was completely fake.
As we have previously explained, the Internet is littered with nonsense warnings like this, and many of them – like this this case – are just slightly altered versions of previous warnings. Given the timing of the warning (it first appeared in late 2016) it is likely that the Hillary part of the warning is likely referring to [then] Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
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A 2018 variant of this hoax also mentions avoiding emails containing the file tasksche.exe. While this piece of advice may contain a grain of truth, it’s outdated and misleading. Tasksche.exe is a process associated with the 2016 WannaCry ransomware/worm outbreak; however infected emails didn’t come attached to a file with that name, rather it’s the name of a process that gets activated once the WannaCry ransomware had already taken hold of a device.
Just like hundreds of other fake warnings in the past, this warning claims that it was “announced” by the media, in this case BBC radio. Other similar warnings often quote CNN, Microsoft or even The Geek Squad. However no such announcement has been made.
What’s more, warnings like this, even if they did describe a genuine threat, are essentially useless. That is because they are poorly written. The warning fails to describe on what platform the “virus” is apparently spreading. For example is it being distributed through email attachments, or on Facebook or any other social media platform? The warning simply (and vaguely) states ‘do not open a video’, which is somewhat unhelpful.
The warning is fake. And it should not be circulated.