If you are surfing the internet it may happen that your programs may stop and you get a warning message from FBI mentioning that you are found to be guilty of any of the following
- You are in violation of copyright or intellectual property right matters by copying some pirated stuff.
- You are found to be accessing or uploading pornography or child abuse sites.
- You are found to be indulged in profanity or religious hatred
- Any other alike matter incriminating you for illegal activity.
This is nothing but a virus attack (typically known as ransomware)
It will give you a message threatening you to pay fine or penalties usually of $200 else criminal proceedings will be undertaken against you. They usually give you a time limit of 48-72 hours to pay fine. They threaten that after the expiry of such 48-72 hours your option to pay fine will go and the only recourse will be to face criminal consequences.
This virus will lock your system therefore you will not be able to run any program or access internet. The FBI screen will not go away from your computer. It is possible that you may not be able to install antivirus yourself. You are asked to pay fine through prepaid anonymous card schemes like Ukash or paysafecard or any other similar scheme.
Some of such viruses have ability to automatically run the webcam. Your webcam showing your face will be shown on the computer along with FBI screen to give impression that your activities are getting recorded and you are nabbed.
Another variant of this virus may lock or encrypt some of your important files and will demand ransom money usually of $20 to $200 to decode these files if you want them back.
What to do in such case?
- Do not panic. Such viruses generally do not delete your data. The encryption can usually be corrected with a good antivirus or anti-malware.
- Do not pay any ransom money. Your system may not be unlocked. Even if it is unlocked the virus may still work in the background and steal confidential information.
- Get the virus removed. There are steps to remove such malwares. The virus removal procedure may change depending upon the type and impact of virus on your computer system. . Normally such remedial steps are for advanced users or experts. If you are a novice, we advise you not to do it yourself. You should seek help from a good technical support expert of your choice. You can find them by searching on Google or Bing in your phone or can call us for guiding you for help at +1-855-832-8372.
- While seeking technical support, do ask questions from your technical support expert. REMEMBER – THERE ARE NO STUPID QUESTIONS, THERE ARE ONLY STUPID ANSWERS.
- It would be normal for you to see your technical person trying to log you in safe mode with networking or with command prompt. He/she will try to get malwarebyte or hitman pro. But do ask questions on what he/she is trying to do. There is nothing wrong in having a cautious eye.
- Prevention is always better than care. It will be good to have good antivirus options that provide coverage against such class of viruses. Always take regular back up of your data on your external hard drive so that you can recover it in the eventuality of losing it. Keep your system scanned on regular basis and try to use virtual keypads while using any of your banking accounts.