Remove DOJ “Your computer has been blocked” virus (MoneyPak Scam)

If your computer is locked, and you are seeing a “Your computer has been blocked” notification from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), then your computer is infected with a piece of malware known as Trojan Urausy.
This threat is distributed through several means. Malicious websites, or legitimate websites that have been compromised, may drop this Trojan onto a compromised computer. This drive-by-download often happens surreptitiously. Another method used to propagate this type of malware is spam email containing infected attachments or links to malicious websites. The threat may also be downloaded manually by tricking the user into thinking they are installing a useful piece of software.
The Department of Justice virus is also prevalent on peer-to-peer file sharing websites and is often packaged with pirated or illegally acquired software.

Once installed on your computer, the Department of Justice virus will display a bogus notification that pretends to be from a law enforcement agency, and states that your computer has been blocked due to it being involved with the distribution of pornographic material, SPAM and copyrighted content.
The Department of Justice virus will lock you out of your computer and applications, so whenever you’ll try to log on into your Windows operating system or Safe Mode with Networking, it will display instead a lock screen asking you to pay a non-existing fine of $300 in the form of a Green dot MoneyPak code.

Furthermore, to make this alert seem more authentic, this virus also has the ability to access your installed webcam, so that the bogus Department of Justice notification shows what is happening in the room.

The Department of Justice virus locks the computer and, depending on the user’s current location, displays a localized webpage that covers the entire desktop of the infected computer and demands payment for the supposed possession of illicit material.

Cyber criminals often updated the design of this lock screen, however you should always keep in mind that the police will never lock down your computer or monitor your online activities.
The message displayed by the threat can be localized depending on the user’s location, with text written in the appropriate language:

The United States Department of Justice
Your computer has been blocked
The work of your computer has been suspended on the grounds of the violation of the law of the United States of America.
Article 274 – Copyright
A fine or imprisonment for the term of up to 4 years. (The use or shanng of copyrighted files-movies, software)
Article 183 – Pornography
A fine or imprisonment for the term of up to 2 years (The use or distribution of pornographic Nes)
Article 184- Pornography involving children (under 18 years)
Imprisonment for the term of up to 15 years (The use or distribution of pornographic files)
Article 104- Promoting Terrorism
Imprisonment for the term of up to 15 years (You have visited websites of terrorist organization)
Article 297 – Neglect computer use, entailing serious consequences
A fine or imprisonment for the term of up to 2 years (Your computer has been infected with a virus, which, in turn, Infected other computers)
In connection with the decision of the Government as of August 12, all of the violations described above could be considered as conditional in case of payment of a fine.
Amount of the fine is $300. Payment must be made within 24 hours after the discovery of the violation. If the fine has not been paid, you will become the subject of criminal prosecution.
After paying the fine your computer will be unblocked

The Department of Justice lock screen is a scam, and you should ignore any alerts that this malicious software might generate.
Under no circumstance should you send any money via MoneyPak to these cyber criminals, and if you have, you can  should request a refund, stating that you are the victim of a computer virus and scam.

Department of Justice lock screen – Virus Removal Guide

STEP 1: Remove Department of Justice lock screen from your computer

Department of Justice MoneyPak Ransom has modified your Windows registry and added its malicious files to run at start-up, so whenever you’re trying to boot your computer it will launch instead its bogus notification.To remove these malicious changes, we can use any of the below methods :

Method 1: Start your computer in Safe Mode with Networking and scan for malware

Some variants of Department of Justice virus will allow the users to start the infected computer in Safe Mode with Networking without displaying the bogus lock screen. In this first method, we will try to start the computer in Safe Mode with Networking and then scan for malware to remove the malicious files.

1. Remove all floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs from your computer, and then restart your computer.
2. Press and hold the F8 key as your computer restarts.Please keep in mind that you need to press the F8 key before the Windows start-up logo appears.
   Note: With some computers, if you press and hold a key as the computer is booting you will get a stuck key message. If this occurs, instead of pressing and holding the “F8 key”, tap the “F8 key” continuously until you get the Advanced Boot Options screen.
3. On the Advanced Boot Options screen, use the arrow keys to highlight Safe Mode with Networking , and then press ENTER.
   
4. If your computer has started in Safe Mode with Networking, you’ll need to perform a system scan (as seen on STEP 2) with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and HitmanPro to remove the malicious files from your machine.

IF the Department of Justice virus didn’t allow you to start the computer in Safe Mode with Networking,you’ll need to follow Method 2 to get rid of its lock screen.

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Method 2: Restore Windows to a previous state using System Restore

System Restore can return your computer system files and programs to a time when everything was working fine, so we will try to use this Windows feature to get rid of Department of Justice  lock screen.

1. Restart your computer, and then press and hold F8 during the initial start-up to start your computer in safe mode with a Command prompt.
   Note: With some computers, if you press and hold a key as the computer is booting you will get a stuck key message. If this occurs, instead of pressing and holding the “F8 key”, tap the “F8 key” continuously until you get the Advanced Boot Options screen.
2. Use the arrow keys to select the Safe mode with a Command prompt option.
   
3. At the command prompt, if you are using Windows Vista, 7 or 8 type C:\windows\system32\rstrui.exe , and then press ENTER.
   If you are using Windows XP, you will need to type C:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe, and then press ENTER.
   
4. The System Restore utility will start, and you’ll need to select a restore point previous to this infection.
   
5. After System Restore has completed its task, you should be able to boot in Windows normal mode, and perform a system scan (as seen on STEP 2) with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and HitmanPro to remove the malicious files from your machine.

IF the Department of Justice  virus didn’t allow you to restore your computer to a previous point, you’ll need to follow Method 3 to get rid of its screen lock.

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Method 3: Remove Department of Justice  lock screen with msconfig utility

When your computer was infected with the Department of Justice virus, this trojan has set a its malicious files to start whenever your computer is booting. IF you didn’t have a restore point, we can use msconfig to remove it’s malicious start-up entry.

1. While your computer is in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, type msconfig to start the Windows System Configuration utility.
   
2. Click on the Startup tab, then search for any suspicious or unknonw entries (random numbers or letters, ctfmon.exe, and other suspicious or unknown entries), and unckech them from startup, then click on OK.
   This will stop the Department of Justice virus from starting with Windows, however it won’t remove the malicious files from your computer.
   
3. Type shutdown /r in the command prompt to restart your computer, then  perform a scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and HitmanPro as seen on STEP 2.

IF the Department of Justice virus didn’t allow you to start the computer in Safe Mode with Command Prompt you’ll need to follow Method 4 to get rid of its screen lock.

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Method 4: Remove Department of Justice virus with HitmanPro Kickstart

IF you couldn’t boot into Safe Mode with Command Prompt or didn’t have a System Restore point on your machine, we can use HitmanPro Kickstart to bypass this infection, and access your computer to scan it for malware.

1. We will need to create a HitmanPro Kickstart USB flash drive,so while you are using a “clean” (non-infected) computer, download HitmanPro from the below link.
   HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a download page in a new window from where you can download HitmanPro)
2. Insert your USB flash drive into your computer and follow the instructions from the below video:
   
3. After you have create the HitmanPro Kickstart USB flash drive, you can insert this USB drive into the infected machine and start your computer.
4. Once the computer starts, repeatedly tap the F11 key (on some machines its F10 or F2),which should bring up the Boot Menu, from there you can select to boot from your USB.
   Next,you’ll need to perform a system scan with HitmanPro as see in the below video:
   
5. After HitmanPro Kickstart has completed its task,you should be able to boot in Windows normal mode,from there you’ll need to perform a system scan (as seen on STEP 2) with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and HitmanPro to remove the malicious files from your machine.

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STEP 2: Remove Department of Justice malicious files from your computer

Run a computer scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free

1. You can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free from the below link,then double click on it to install this program.
   MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE DOWNLOAD LINK(This link will open a download page in a new window from where you can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free)
2. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the setup process.
   DO NOT make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware checked,then click on the Finish button.
   
3. On the Scanner tab,select Perform quick scan and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer.
   
4. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware will now start scanning your computer for Department of Justice virus as shown below.
   
5. When the Malwarebytes scan will be completed,click on Show Result.
   
6. You will now be presented with a screen showing you the malware infections that Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware has detected.Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.Make sure that everything is Checked (ticked) and click on the Remove Selected button.
   
7. After your computer will restart in Normal mode, open Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and perform a Full System scan to verify that there are no remaining threats

Run a computer scan with HitmanPro

1. Download HitmanPro from the below link,then double click on it to start this program.
   HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a new web page from where you can download HitmanPro)
   IF you are experiencing problems while trying to start HitmanPro, you can use the Force Breach mode.To start HitmanPro in Force Breach mode, hold down the left CTRL-key when you start HitmanPro and all non-essential processes are terminated, including the malware process. (How to start HitmanPro in Force Breach mode – Video)
2. HitmanPro will start and you’ll need to follow the prompts (by clicking on the Next button) to start a system scan with this program.
   
   
3. HitmanPro will start scanning your computer for Department of Justice  malicious files as seen in the image below.
   
4. Once the scan is complete,you’ll see a screen which will display all the infected files that this utility has detected, and you’ll need to click on Next to remove these malicious files.
   
5. Click Activate free license to start the free 30 days trial and remove all the malicious files from your computer.
   

If you are still experiencing problems while trying to remove Department of Justice  virus from your machine, please start a new thread in our Malware Removal Assistance forum.