United Kingdom Police Virus

Sometimes malware infections seem like legal programs or representatives of law enforcement authorities. United Kingdom Police Virus is a kind of ransomware infection that bears the symbols of the United Kingdom Police Authority. Due to the way it looks, the message displayed by United Kingdom Police Virus can look very believable and users can be pushed into spending their money when it is absolutely unnecessary. The thing is that United Kingdom Police Virus locks the computer screen and does not allow the user to access his/her desktop. The screen is blocked by a fake security notification that is supposedly sent by the British Police. An extract of the fake security message is presented below:

ATTENTION! Your PC is blocked due to at least one of the reasons specified below.

You have been viewing or distributing prohibited Pornographic content (Child Porn/Zoophilia and etc). Thus violating article 202 of the Criminal Code of Great Britain.

Article 202 of the Criminal Code provides for a deprivation of liberty for 4 to 12 years.

Fines may only be paid within 72 hours after the infringement. As soon as 72 hours elapse, the possibility to pay the fine expires, and a criminal case is initiated against you automatically within the next 72 hours!

The amount of fine is £100. You can pay a fine Ukash or PaySafeCard.

United Kingdom Police Virus is not the only active ransomware infection. It is a part of a huge Ukash Virus group, and it is distributed by Urausy trojan, just like Urausy FBI Ransomware Infection. These threats make use of symbols and titles that belong to local police and other law enforcement authorities, thus making it seem as though the users really have breached several laws by having been engaged in illegal cyber activity. However, no matter how real these notifications might seem, there is nothing legal about United Kingdom Police Virus. It is a computer infection and it will try its best to steal your money.

Even though United Kingdom Police Virus claims that your computer will be unlocked once you pay the £100 ransom fee (within 72 hours), that is not true - your computer will remain locked, and the criminals behind this infection will receive your money. Note that United Kingdom Police Virus makes use of alternative payment systems (Ukash and PaySafeCard), so even if you do not have a bank account, the infection can collect payments, because alternative payment system does not require users to have bank accounts or credit cards.

Since nothing will change even if you pay the ransom, you need to remove United Kingdom Police Virus from your computer at once.

Follow the instructions below to unblock your desktop and delete the infection:

Windows Vista & Windows 7

1. Reboot the PC and press F8 repeatedly once BIOS screen loads.
2. If Windows logo appears, restart the PC and try again.
3. Select Safe Mode with Networking on Advanced Boot Options menu and press Enter.
4. Access http://www.pcthreat.com/download-sph and download SpyHunter.
5. Install the program and perform a full system scan.

Windows XP

1. Follow the steps above from 1 to 3.
2. When a confirmation box appears click Yes.
3. Download SpyHunter.
4. Open Start Menu and launch Run.
5. Click Startup tab on System Configuration Utility.
6. Un-tick all programs on the list and click OK to save changes.
7. Restart computer in Normal Mode.
8. Install SpyHunter and run a full system scan.

Should you have any questions regarding United Kingdom Police Virus and its removal, leave a comment below.