General Chat

Dont know how long this has been around
but my computer had this virus today
and the only thing i had been on was ancestery and free bmd site
not saying i pick it up from thease two site but just letting you all no
so you can be aware

now this virus is deadly it blocks your computer and a crean comes up as if it is from the metroplitan police and it want you to pay £100 befor you can get back in to your computer

please please dont be fooled
there is no phone number or address on the page that comes up

and this virus got parst my up to date 2012 norton

i had to completly restart my computer back to fatory seting
so just hopeing im rid of this virus now



shelly xxx

Oh dear Shelly....

I was on both these yesterday.......mines OK.

Wonders how it crept in.. :-0

Although the interface is nowhere near as fancy as the others the most effective antivirus / firewall program is Microsoft Essentials (free).

I was on those two sites yesterday and my computer virtually stopped working. I have done various cleanups since and so far so good. Again it might be coincidence but I think your post is worthwhile. -jl

Did you run a full security scan DS? Would have thought Norton would have then isolated it

up date computer is working fine so think i got rid of the virus

ronald the pc was blocked had to put it in safe mode norton would not run full scan
in safe mode

i had to reset the pc but i then put norton disc back on pc and then run a full scan and every think was ok

it isnt actually a virus, its Malware.....


Safe mode, system restore........to an earlier restore point
no need to part with any cash..........

I sacked Norton 'cos they wouldn't stop pestering me after i'd paid for a top rank package from them. They obviously thought they could bleed me some more then a very basic Virus got into my system so I deleted them and now use free AVIRA on the recommendation of my local computer shop. AVIRA also pester me to upgrade but as they've had nowt off me I can tolerate that.

this appears to be the latest version of this scam...........


1 February 2013 Last updated at 11:12

.Computer virus accuses victims of viewing child porn The virus uses a window crafted to look like it was issued by official agencies Continue reading the main story
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German federal police are warning about a computer virus that accuses victims of viewing "juvenile pornography".

It also displays an image that it claims reveals images of child sexual abuse have been viewed on a computer.

The Windows virus locks a computer and only returns control to its owner on payment of a 100 euro (£86) fine.

It purports to be collecting cash on behalf of German copyright authorities and the country's national computer security agency.

The virus amounted to "digital extortion" and victims should not pay up, said German police.

The warning about the novel strain of ransomware was issued by Germany's Federal Criminal police office (the Bundeskriminalamt or BKA).

The ransomware version found by the BKA uses a pop-up window that says the machine has been locked down due to "unauthorised network activity". The window is crafted to look like it has been put together by Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BKI) and its society for prosecution of copyright infringement (GVU).

'Emotional blackmail'

Text in the window claims that images of child sexual abuse as well as pirated content have been found on the machine. Also displayed is an picture of a child which it claims reveals illegal images have been viewed.

Rik Ferguson, director of security research at Trend Micro, said it was the first time he had heard of ransomware displaying images that users were accused of harbouring.

"It seems that they are attempting to increase the pressure of this kind of emotional blackmail," he told the BBC.

Germany's BKA said users should not pay the fine "under any circumstances" and added that neither the BKI or GVU collected cash in this way from those suspected of viewing illegal images or pirating content. Instead, users should use anti-virus and other security software to clean up their PC and deal with the virus.

"This is a form of digital extortion," said the BKA in its alert about the virus.

Ransomware, which tries to make victims pay an on-the-spot fine, is becoming more prevalent but most strains simply accuse people of pirating movies or music. Others scramble data that is only unscrambled when a fee is paid.

Security firm Symantec said it was seeing more and more strains of ransomware and said it could be "highly profitable" for its creators. It estimated that ransomware makers were already making about $5m (£3m) a year from such malicious code.

This one can be particularly nasty and once you have it, will always pop up as soon as you connect to the internet, blocking everything else.
Unfortunately, System Restore is not the "get out of jail free card" that people think it is. Although it will appear to set your computer back to an earlier state, many rogue programmes etc will reappear. This is because of a number of reasons including registry entries and the fact that some files may lie dormant on your computer until re-accessed and the problem starts all over again.
A re-install, although drastic, can occasionally be the only solution. I recently had to sort this particular nasty out for two different clients. One I was able to resolve using security software but the other I had to perform a complete re-install (always a pain in the vernacular).
The big problem is that even if you try to sort it by using Safe Mode, as soon as you connect to the internet (sometimes necessary) it pops straight back up.

I run Norton internet securty and so far fingers crossed it's been fine, however my neighbour running Norton 360 got a virus last week and had to get an expert in to sort it.

I have malwarebytes as a seperate stand alone malware checker loaded on mine, so I do have a second line of defence. If something slips by Norton I can run it to try and stop the rot. The Free version can be used with other security programs as it does not run all the time so conflicts are unlikely. Unlike the paid for Pro version that runs all the time.

Mayfield.