Clicking a link that said "free ringtone download" and getting a zip bomb that crashed my phone in 2004

2 comments

2 Comments

My buddy Mike fell for the exact same thing back then. He was so excited to get some free ringtone for his flip phone, clicked the link, and his computer just froze solid. He thought he broke it for good and spent like an hour panicking before he figured out how to force restart it. The worst part was he still had to explain to his dad why the family computer was acting up. He never downloaded anything sketchy again after that.

thompson.christopher6d ago

That line about him still having to explain it to his dad really hit home. Did Mike ever figure out exactly what kind of malware that link ended up installing on the computer? I always wonder what actually happens behind the scenes when you click those sketchy free ringtone links.