The infamous Australian Federal Police Android threat, abbreviated as AFP virus, has been categorized as destructive Ukash ransomware attacking Australian PC/Android users mainly. Traced back to the early 2013, the AFP virus has been designed by cyber crooks to create hazards on target machine, no matter it runs Windows operating system, Mac OS X or Android system. Being similar as other well-known ransom viruses such as FBI Moneypak virus and Homeland Security virus (click here to view the post), the Australian Federal Police Android virus keeps adopting the techniques of screen locker, which is typically bundled with a bogus notification in the name of Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), AFP. Crime Commission (ACC) or Royal Australian Corps of Military Police Interpol. For detailed, the Australian Federal Police Android threat usually claims that your computer/Android phone has been locked due to it being involved with the distribution of pornographic material or other copyrighted content and spam. Being against the law, the punishment executed by Australian Federal Police is amount of fine which could be AUD $100 or more.
According to the announcement of AFP virus, PC/Android users can pay the fine through Ukash or Paysafecard vouchers to the government organization within 72 hours. It states that as soon as the money arrives to the Treasury account, your computer will be unblocked in course of 24 hours. Without any doubts, the Australian Federal Police virus is only a hazardous ransom virus which we should remove timely and permanently. As regards the alert on AFP screen, victims should ignore it completely and never waste any needless money on it. Generally, many PC users have no idea when their PCs get infected with the Australian Federal Police virus accurately. Being covered with progressive tactics, the AFP virus can always conceal its malicious activation files on corrupted advertisements, phising emails or websites, “free” downloading online recourse. Once PC users click on the vicious files belong to AFP ransom virus, it could be lurked into weak machine easily at an unimaginable speed.
Certainly, upon its installation on your PC, the first obvious symptoms can be the misleading alert popup covering on your screen. In fact, the Australian Federal Police virus has created and copied its vicious codes and registry files constantly in order to make disturbances on system before shows up its fake alert on PC. Being running in the background secretly, the AFP virus has excavated numerous system vulnerabilities so that to hide its components deeply in system without awareness. Though you have the capability to run your favorite antivirus programs to detect the AFP virus, they may still fail to catch and remove AFP virus effectively. However, the hazards Australian Federal Police virus can bring are not only the simple fake screen, but also other unthinkable damages on PC. To be more specific, the Australian Federal Police virus is always bundled with lots of various Trojans, worms, browser hijack virus and rogue viruses. The more potential threats on your PC could exploit the system bugs further and even open a backdoor for remote hackers. Thus, the hackers could utilize the loopholes created by the viruses to access compromised machine freely and even take control of your PC at last. It is conspicuous that delaying removing the dangerous AFP virus, it could damage your PC as well as your sensitive privacy seriously.
Tips: Though manual removal of AFP virus can remove the virus effectively, it is a process of high complexity and should be performed with extreme caution. If any wrong operation or even any deviation from the following instruction, it may lead to computer crash. If you need any help, you can start live chat with VilmaTech Experts now.
The Australian Federal Police virus can be lurked into PC through various methods. Usually, the Australian Federal Police can come bundled with shareware or other downloadable software. When PC users download such resource online, the Australian Federal Police can be activated simply. Also, the AFP virus is distributed by deceptive advertisements, which may appear as regular Windows notifications with links. Once you click on the links, the AFP files can be downloaded automatically into your PC.
Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Police virus can installs on your computer through a certain Trojan infection. Thus, once your system is infected with Australian Federal Police virus, you may have additional threats on your PC as well. In addition, the sponsored links in Email or malicious websites can be the approach to lead to infection of AFP virus. Some PC users may wonder they never do abnormal behaviors online, but their PCs are still infected with Australian Federal Police virus. Well, actually the AFP virus may even attack some poplar and legitimate websites and insert its harmful files with them. Therefore, even though you pay attention while surf online, the Australian Federal Police virus can always finds the possible way to sneak into your PC.
Tips: Not familiar with AFP virus manual removal? Afraid of making mistake during the operation? If so, you may contact VilmaTech 24/7 Online Experts to resolve your problems.
Usually, the AFP virus has the ability to disable certain system functions in order to perform its processes smoothly. Thus, it could be hardly removed in the regular mode with conventional techniques. Hence, it’s better to start PC running into Safe Mode with Networking first for the sake of removing AFP virus completely.
1. Safe Mode with Networking
If you are using Windows 7, XP & Vista:
Reboot the PC and keep pressing F8 key on the keyboard before Windows launches. Hit the arrow keys to choose “Safe Mode with Networking” option, and then tap Enter key to enter Safe Mode with Networking.
If you are using Windows 8:
a. Restart your computer. As your computer restarts but before Windows launches, hold down the Shift key and repeatedly hit the F8 key (Shift+F8), this will sometimes boot you into the new advanced “recovery mode”, where you can choose to see advanced repair options. Please click on See advanced repair options Button to go ahead.
b. You will get this Choose an option Screen after you clicked on See advanced repair options. Now you will need to click on the Troubleshoot option to continue.
c. When you get on this Troubleshoot Screen, you can see there are three options listed, please click on or select the Advanced Options.
d. Now you are at the Windows Startup Settings option, by the looks of things we were never meant to find Safe Mode With Networking, you are required to click on Restart Button to continue.
e. When you are at the Advanced Boot Options, use the arrow keys to highlight the “Safe Mode with Networking” option, and then press ENTER or Press a number to choose from the option, if we now want to enable safe mode with networking, then press 5.
2. Show hidden files of AFP virus
a. Click on the Start button and then on Control Panel
b. Click on the Appearance and Personalization link
c. Click on the Folder Options link and then selecton the View tab in the Folder Options window
d. Choose the Show hidden files, folders, and drives under the Hidden files and folders category
e. Click OK at the bottom of the Folder Options window.
3. Click on the “Start” menu and then click on the “Search programs and files” box, Search for and delete these files created by AFP virus:
%AllUsersProfile%\random.exe
%Temp%\random.exe
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\.dll HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Random “.exe”
4. Open Registry Editor by navigating to “Start” Menu, type “Regedit” into the box and click “OK” to proceed. When Registry Editor is open, search and get rid of the following registry entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Random
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\run\Random.exe
Different from the version on Windows, the AFP virus usually attacks Mac’s Safari to display its fake alert and coax users to pay money on it. Basically, the removal on Mac is much easier to deal with. You can choose to reset your Safari to default settings in order to get rid of the AFP infection simply. Here is how:
a. Open your Safari, and click on Settings icon to get the option list. In this list, you can choose Reset Safari to continue.
b. Then a new window will popup and confirms that “Are you sure you want to reset Safari?. Click Reset button to reset Safari to default settings.
c. Restart Safari and have a check again.
Tips: Though it is able to clean up AFP virus from your Safari browser for good, the tricky virus inserts its malicious codes and files in system. To erase all its leftovers on computer, it needs further complicated expertise to handle it. Otherwise, any subtle mistakes on system files, it may lead to worse results such as computer crash.
The AFP virus is a dangerous ransom Android virus, which we need to remove timely in order to avoid unwanted Android damage and data loss. Being under the guise of authority of Australian Federal Police, the Australian Federal Police scam always attempts to puzzle innocent victims and make them believe the bogus notification so that to pay non-existent fine for them. Thus, once being faced with such tricky Android virus, the very first thing you need to do is to ignore the misleading message and never pay money on it for sure. Moreover, except the fake alert, the AFP Android virus has the ability to download and install additional threats to make further damage on PC as well as other unwanted Android security symptoms. Many PC/Android users may attempt to remove Australian Federal Police virus with their installed antivirus programs, but sometimes they may even fail to get into PC/Android device regularly and disabled to run any antivirus applications. In this case, it is strongly recommended to use Australian Federal Police Android virus manual removal to end up all its bad symptoms. However, manual removal of AFP Android malware is a process of high complexity and should be performed with extreme caution, or mal-operation often results in loss of precious data even system crash.
Note: If you have any questions about the instruction above and need help to remove the Australian Federal Police Android virus effectively, you may contact the VilmaTech online experts to help you resolve the problem promptly and safely.
