Beware of the F.B.I. Virus

Viruses are a part of life on the web, but sometimes there are some especially vicious ones that can catch a person off guard. Last night I encountered one that I think deserves a bit of an explanation. Imagine you are surfing and another link pops up in the background. Then, a big screen comes up with an F.B.I. insignia. The screen will also say that you have tried to download an illegal copyrighted material and the F.B.I. has locked your computer.

The scariest, weirdest part about it was that it turned on my web cam and took a picture of me, supposedly for identification purposes. The screen will also say you have to pay 200$ with in 48-72 hours or you will be prosecuted. It instructs you to go get a green-dot type card at Wal-mart and to punch in the pin number or you will be immediately prosecuted.

So if you don’t know it, this is not how the F.B.I. works. I will admit it is a bit scary for a minute, but I wasn’t doing anything wrong so I knew it had to be some type of scam, which it is. It is being referred to as the “F.B.I. Virus.” Do not under any circumstances pay a dime to anyone, it is created to scare you into paying.

What you should do is turn your computer off, because the screen will be taken over. After you turn the computer on again, you will not be allowed to go online, it will kick you off and it will say that it is unable to connect.

So first you should try to do a recovery on your computer, go back to the last good recovery point. This will take a few minutes and should take care for it. It will open your computer back up so you can go back online. However, this is the problem, DO NOT do anything with your bank or anything else, because it has been known to be tied to key loggers and you could compromise your information.

To ensure there is nothing left on your computer, make sure to run a scan through two different companies to make sure your computer is clear. If you are still unsure, you may even want to wipe and reformat your computer.

Now to save you from further trouble I would like to recommend a firewall that will not even let you click on a compromised like, it is called TREND. Several firewalls will let them get through, Trend is the only one who will refuse it from the get go. This is not a firewall that is usually on computers, it cost around 10 dollars a year, but to me it is worth it, especially if you find yourself surfing the web a lot. So if you are exposed to the F.B.I. Virus, take care to clean it off completely. Also, you should report what you were doing when it happened to the F.B.I., they have an internet site just for this, they have received quite a bit of complaints. So if everyone reports the where, maybe we can get rid of this nasty little virus.