I was on my email today on my laptop and all of a sudden this ‘Police Department University Of California’ virus came up. I took over my computer screen and blocked everything so I cannot do anything at all. It said I was doing something against federal law(looking at child pornography,piracy,etc) and have to pay a fine of$200 through Moneypak to unlock my computer. But I knew it was a scam and obviously I didn’t fall for it. However, I’m really scared! How did the virus come to my computer? Is my computer hacked by someone I don’t know? I am worried about my data in my computer and don’t want to lose it. I tried restarting with safe mode & networking but it is not working.. I mean it works for 3 seconds then it stops working and restarts automatically. What should I do?
Police Department University Of California is another variant of Moneypak virus used to attack PC users in California, USA. Now this Ransomware is spreading rapidly over the Internet and currently infecting thousands of Windows computers by locking up their machines unless the owner agrees to pay $200 within 72 hours. Similarly to the other Moneypak virus, it typically gains access to computers by clicking malicious code or unsafe advertising pop-ups, visiting pornographic website or downloading attachment from spam emails. This scam may trick people into opening an e-mail attachment that looks like a pdf file, but actually it turns out to be a Windows program. Once running, this virus immediately takes over your computer screen. It also seeks potential system vulnerabilities to invade Windows system with the help of Trojans. Be aware that this fake police warning has nothing to do with the legal agency it seems related to. It is a scam designed by cyber criminals to pilfer money from credulous computer users.
When it is installed, it locks up your computer as soon as computer boots up. Thus, you cannot control your computer any more. Fake Police Department University Of California virus pops up immediately and it blames you for breaking the law by watching and distributing pornographic content files. Users who get this warning locking their computers must be so paranoid into thinking the cops will come and get them and throw them in jail, especially for those who really watch porn usually. However, things won’t happen like that way because this is just a scam designed by the hackers who want to steal money and information from its victims. To further convince inexperience PC users, it even displays an official FBI seal and various names of law enforcement authorities related to the FBI accordingly on the head of the bogus notification. And probably your IP address, ISP and physical location are listed as well. However, you shouldn’t be afraid of this, because these information may not be real and this notification is not sent from the real FBI. All the fraudulent alerts are designed with one single goal to scare innocent users into paying a non-existent fine which is $200 through Moneypak.
Now cyber criminals keep changing the style of the virus warning and adding more features on the virus page in an attempt to make victims fall into the scam and get money from them. We believe that this Ransomware can not only attack people in California, it also attack innocent users in other areas. Since it is a scam, do not pay or share any of your personal information to Police Department University Of California ransomware and you must remove this virus from your computer immediately.
It will take control of your computer rapidly once it is downloaded.
It will pretend itself as a legit warning and then ask for a ransom.
It can disable your task manager and even pop up in safe mode.
It can connect to a remote IRC server and forward the data to cyber criminals without a computer user’s awareness.
It can’t be simply uninstalled or removed in control panel.
1. Police Department University Of California Virus mainly attacks computers running in Windows operating system, it may also affect Mac OS X.
2. Don’t pay for anything or provide your personal information to this hoax.
3. Currently no anti-virus program is able to detect or remove this malware, even for preventing the virus from attacking the computer again.
4. Be aware that even if you are able to unfreeze your computer on your own like doing a system restore, the malware may still operate in the background. To completely get rid of this Ransomware, manual removal is needed.
Although this virus page seems to be legitimate, it is 100% fake. It even uses web cam control to make users panic and make them to pay for the ransom wrongly. If your computer is infected, you will detect your webcam will be on without your permission just like the police is recording you. If you do not have a web cam connected, the video screen on the page will appear to be blank. As mentioned above, we can see how this scam works to deceive innocent users. It is good at using scare tactic to extract money from victims. Hence, users must get rid of Police Department University Of California malware manually as soon as possible.
1. Since you cannot gain access to the infected computer under regular mode because of this lock screen, please restart the computer and put it in Safe mode with Networking first. Here’s the guide: Restart the computer upon the locking screen and start hitting F8 key repeatedly when PC is booting up again; if successfully, Safe mode options will show up on the screen for you to select. Please use arrow keys to highlight Safe mode with Networking option and hit enter key. System will be loading files into this mode afterward.
Attention: If virus stays in your computer for a long time, it may work in the background and block you from accessing safe mode with networking, thus, you’ll see virus page still or the virus forces you to log off and restart your computer automatically. In that case, please choose: Safe mode with command prompt and try if it helps. If none of them helps, please contact YooCare expert for instant help.
2. Open Control Panel from Start menu and search for Folder Options. Go to Folder Options window, under View tab, tick Show hidden files and folders and non-tick Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.
3. Under Safe mode with Networking, please hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) keys together to pull up Windows Task Manager; go to Processes tab on top and scroll down the list to find processes associated with Policia Departamento Cibercrime virus and click End process.
4. Open Registry Editor by pressing Windows+R keys and pull up Run box and searching for regedit.
5. Find out and delete files and registry entries as below:
%Temp%\[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe
C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User>
C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\random
6. Restart computer back to Regular mode and check out if the warning page still shows up again.
Police Department University Of California is newly-released Ransomware that attacks computer users in the USA. This specific version targets computers in California. Like other Ransomware, it blocks users from accessing the machine and shows them a fake police warning claiming they are involved in an illegal action like watching porn and have to pay $200 Moneypak within 48 hours. Most of the victims will be panic and feel ashamed to tell anyone when the first time they see such bogus police notification. They think that if anyone knows this happened, they may get arrested or even worse. That is the reason why many people have fallen into this scam without thinking twice. Actually no government will ask payment from a prepaid card. It is just a scam and has nothing to do with any legal authority. Therefore, you should get rid of it as soon as it pops up on your computer.
Note: Manual removal is a skillful and risky job, if any mistakes are made in the process, you may damage your computer immediately. If you are not sure how to do, please contact YooCare PC experts 24/7 online for help right now.
Published by on March 8, 2014 4:31 am, last updated on March 8, 2014 4:31 am
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