Why is the AFP accusing me of doing illegal activities?

I recently got a warning on my computer from the Australian Federal Police. It says I have been downloading illegal music and child pornography. I swear I haven’t done anything like that. My computer is locked out and they want money otherwise I am going to be arrested. What do I do?

Maddy, Lambton

Hi Maddy,

The Australian Federal Police certainly don’t operate this way and if they had any evidence that you had child pornography on your computer there would be no warning.

This is a new variant of virus that goes under the category of ransom ware. Its sole purpose is to get money out of you. It scares you into paying money by making you think that you are going to be arrested.

As it gets more sophisticated it has now got to the stage where if you have a webcam on your computer it will take a picture of you and put it on the screen. This is just one of the many tactics it uses. It looks official, states you have been doing some extremely bad things and is purely designed to scare you into paying up.

There is a worst type of ransom ware going around at the moment called crypto locker. This ransom ware encrypts your files using the same technology that secures your online bank transactions. The only way to unlock your files is to pay the money or restore the data from your backups. It even gives you a time limit before your files become unrecoverable, trying to encourage you to pay up.

So you can relax. We  get a few calls a day from people in your situation who are worried about what they have been accused of doing. The good news is it is fairly straight forward to remove and once removed your computer is unlocked.