Resident Evil: Outbreak is a video game whose makers seem to have a rather infectious marketing style – as in, launching a mobile virus gimmick to promote the new version of the game that sets up players against zombies infected with a virus. And it's making a few people sick, especially online security company Sophos.
It goes like this, according to some published reports: A Website to support the gimmick lets you forward a "virus" to wireless subscribers without their permission, turning their cellphones' ringtones into zombie groans removable by sending text messages to Resident Evil's makers, Capcom, a Japanese company.
The problem, according to Sophos, is that some of the users thought that they got infected with a real virus spreading by SMS. The company said it got numerous queries from people who feared their cellphones picked up mobile viruses after getting unsolicited text messages.
"Outbreak: I'm infecting you with t-virus, my code is ******. Forward this to 60022 to get your own code and chance to win prizes. More at t-virus.co.uk," said one of the more typical messages of the gimmick virus, according to Sophos.
"The messages themselves are not infectious, but some people have panicked that they might have received a real mobile phone virus," said Sophos senior tech consultant Graham Cluley in a statement. "This marketing campaign seems particularly ill-conceived, particularly as there is so much genuine interest in the mobile virus threat at present."
The masterminds of the marketing campaign are CE Europe, whose senior public relations manager Ben Le Rougetel issued a statement saying the firm "had to come clean" about the gimmick bug, called T-Virus, "eventually." He said its original intent was only to promote Resident Evil: Outbreak for PlayStation 2. "But it's spread much quicker than we originally anctipated," he said. "It's now totally out of control and we're not totally sure how to stop it."
Sophos is not amused.
"The press release implies that the messages have stopped being a marketing device, and have become a real virus," Cluley said. "The truth is that viral marketing campaigns like this generate work for IT departments and anti-virus support desks as we have to reassure users that it is not a genuine infection."
Capcom and CE Europe aren't exactly the originators of a virus hoax aimed at product promotion. Penguin Books started the Irina hoax in 1996, looking to promote a book, a hoax that spread for "some years," Sophos said. In fact, Irina still lives – the hoax bug is still listed at number one on Sophos's listing of the most prevalent cyberhoaxes.
