Welcome to RCF - WHF

rb2d2 · Sep 25, 2004

More malware demands money to rescue files

New ransomware has been detected in the wild, with Kaspersky Labs identifying a variant of an older trojan dubbed Gpcode. The variant encrypts many files on the infected computer, ranging from documents to pictures to C source code. After encryption, the program demands extortion money from the owner of the machine in return for a decryption key.

“Ransomware” as it is called isn't particularly new. It has been seen and reported several times before, though it was barely thought of at the time. It is still something you hear of rarely, which is probably a very good thing. Hopefully the culprit of such annoying plots will see prison time rather than extortion money.

violent1

fishead · Feb 09, 2005

The thing is, once you pay ransom, more than likely they will not fix anything and probably want more money.

rb2d2 · Sep 25, 2004

I think I've read of this in one of the help forums I occasionally visit. Someone got a popup on a site telling them their PC was infected and to quickly download a free scanner and find the virus. They did! Crying or Very sad

Don't remember the details but of course after install and a scan they were given a list of evil sounding virus and Trojans, told in order to have them removed they would need to buy the program. Since their OS was obviously compromised and unusable they bought the program. And I think you're right Dave, after paying they got nothing in return and had to wipe their HDD and start from scratch.

Crying or Very sad

fishead · Feb 09, 2005

They not only don't fix the problem but they tell you you need to buy more stuff, and more stuff until you finally figure out its all a big scam.