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phishing

gfergie

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Posted October 18, 2012 at 5:00PM

My pc has been locked with a PCeU screen telling me to pay £100 to get it unlocked. How can I get rid of this?

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Nontek

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Posted October 18, 2012 at 5:11PM

Just close down PC, then wait a minute or so and restart in normal way.

If that does not clear it ....

Restart in Safe Mode and do a System Restore back to before this appeared.

Then run a full scan with MalwareBytes or similar just to be on the safe side.

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Forum Editor

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Posted October 18, 2012 at 5:20PM

This is being caused by what's called a 'Ransom ware' virus, called unsurprisingly PCeU.

PCeU is the Metropolitan Police e-crime unit.

Your anti-virus software should detect and delete it if it has been updated recently - the virus has been around since the beginning of this year, if not longer. I suggest that you run a full scan straight away,and if that doesn't produce the required result, post back here for further advice. There is a manual removal method, but try the scan first.

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gfergie

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Posted October 19, 2012 at 9:23AM

Thanks, did a system restore and that got rid of it.

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onthelimit1

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Posted October 19, 2012 at 9:50AM

'Your anti-virus software should detect and delete it if it has been updated recently'

Interesting as I've had a couple of laptops recently with up to date, paid for AV that still caught this bug.

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Nontek

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Posted October 19, 2012 at 11:04AM

Good, glad it is sorted - might still be a good idea to run a full scan with MalwareBytes or similar.

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Sea Urchin

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Posted October 19, 2012 at 11:28AM

A system restore is not usually sufficient to completely rid yourself of this virus. If it returns that you can follow this Bleeping Computer tutorial which should totally remove it (scroll down to Automated Removal Instructions for Police Central e-crime Unit Ransomware using the Emsisoft Emergency Kit)

Remove PCeU virus

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