Is your PC locked by the scary warning of Northern Constabulary E-crime Unit? Be careful! Such alert isn’t associated with this UK’s law enforcement organization. Instead, what you see is the virus classified as ransomware. It was developed and launched into the cyber space by hackers specifically for the purpose of stealing funds from scared and deceived users. And, by the way, it belongs to the same type of malware as Metropolitan Police virus (ransomware). This is the Trojan horse that attacks the computer, modifies its startup parameters in the Registry Editor and thus locks the desktop of the infected machine with its scary warning each time user turns the PC on.
The scary warning allegedly coming from Northern Constabulary E-crime Unit accuses users of committing various crimes online. For example, the notification says that users were noticed to perform the following illegal activities with application of their computers:
- Sending unsolicited spam to various addressees
- Watching explicit adult content and spreading it around other users
- Downloading illegal software, audio and video samples (thus violating ownership rights)
- Supporting terrorist activities
- Performing other crimes in violation of UK’s and international legislation
The ransomware then instructs users to pay certain amount of fine in favor of the crooks that developed it. The penalty is supposed to be paid by Ukash or Paysafecard payment systems by means of indication of PIN (voucher) code in the respective section of the ransomware’s background. Doing as instructed by this malware is a serious mistake! Never pay money for these fraudsters! Remember that this notice supposedly coming from Northern Constabulary E-crime Unit is a virus and isn’t associated with the UK’s police.
Rebooting the PC to get rid of Northern Constabulary E-crime Unit fake warning doesn’t help. No matter how many times you restart your PC the locked status would persist. In order to unlock your computer you are instructed by us to follow the detailed removal guide that will help you recover your system effectively. By the way, there are two separate recommended solutions – automatic and manual ones. If you follow these instructions carefully you will be able to recover your PC to the previous fully functional mode.
Detailed removal guide for your consideration:
http://trojan-killer.net/metropolitan-police-virus-warning-remove/Automatic removal solution (recommended):
- Go to your friend, relative or anybody else who has computer with Internet connection.
- Take your USB flash drive / Memory Stick with you.
- Download GridinSoft Trojan Killer installation file from this site http://trojan-killer.net/download.php and save it to your USB flash drive / Memory Stick.
- Get back to your infected PC and insert the USB Drive / Memory Stick into the respective USB slot.
- Perform hard reset (press reset button on your computer) if your infected PC has been on with Metropolitan Police background. If not, then simply turn your PC on.
- Before the very boot process begins keep repeatedly hitting “F8” button on your keyboard.
- In the window that appeared select “Safe mode with command prompt” option and press Enter.
- Choose your operating system and user account which was infected with Metropolitan Police virus.
- In the cmd.exe window type “explorer” and press “Enter” button on your keyboard.
- Select “My Computer” and choose your USB flash drive / Memory Stick.
- Run the installation file of GridinSoft Trojan Killer. Install the program and run scan with it. (update of the program will not work for “Safe mode with command prompt” option)
- When the hijackers are successfully disabled (fixed) by GridinSoft Trojan Killer you may close GridinSoft Trojan Killer application.
- In the cmd.exe window type “shutdown /r /t 0” and press “Enter” button on your keyboard.
- Upon system reboot your PC will be unlocked and you will be able to use it just as before the infection took pace.
- However, it is recommended that you now update GridinSoft Trojan Killer and run the scan with it again to remove the source of the infections causing Metropolitan Police virus to infect your PC.
Automatic removal video:
Metropolitan Police manual removal milestones (optional and might not be effective):
- Restart your system into "Safe Mode with Command Prompt". While the PC is booting press the "F8 key" continuously, which should present the "Windows Advanced Options Menu" as presented in the image below. Apply the arrow keys in order to move to "Safe Mode with Command Prompt" and hit Enter key of your keyboard. Login as the same user you were previously logged in under the normal Windows mode.
- Once Windows boots successfully, the Windows command prompt would appear as described at the screenshot below. At the command prompt, type-in the word "explorer", and press Enter. Windows Explorer should open. Please do not yet close it. You can minimize it for a while.
- Afterwards open the Registry editor by applying the same Windows command prompt. Type-in the word "regedit" and hit Enter button of your keyboard. The Registry Editor should open.
- Find the following registry entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\In the right-side panel select the registry entry named Shell. Right click on this registry key and select "Modify" option. Its default value should be "Explorer.exe". However, Metropolitan Police virus did its job, and so after you click "Modify" you would see totally different value of this registry entry. - Copy the location of the modified value of the above-mentioned registry entry to the piece of paper or memorize its location. It shows where exactly the main executable of Metropolitan Police virus is located.
- Modify the value of the registry entry back to "explorer.exe" and save the settings of the Registry Editor.
- Go to the location indicated in the value of modified registry entry. Remove the malicous file. Use the file location you copied into the piece of paper or otherwise noted in step in previous step. In our case, "Metropolitan Police" virus file was located and running from the Desktop. There was a file called "contacts.exe", but it may have different (random) name.
- Get back to "Normal Mode". In order to reboot your PC, when at the command prompt, type-in the following phrase "shutdown /r /t 0" (without the quotation marks) and hit Enter button.
- The virus should be gone. However, in order to clean your PC from other possible virus threats and malware remnants, make sure to download and run GridinSoft Trojan Killer downloadable through the button below.
You know how it normally looks like, don't you? Well, here is the screenshot of it:
Manual removal video:
Associated virus files to be removed:
[random].exe Associated virus registry entries to be removed:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\"Shell" = "[random].exe"
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