Remove Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) virus

God Save the Queen and her PC from being infected with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) virus – ransomware infection. God save you and your system from same consequences. Yet, if this sad event ever happens with your computer, don’t worry. In this guide we will explain how to unlock your computer targeted with a fake warning supposedly deriving from Serios Organised Crime Agency (a.k.a. SOCA). This is an absolutely bogus alert not associated with the Metropolitan British Police, Cheshire Constabulary or Police Central e-crime Unit (PCEU). The peculiarity of this fictitious alert is the fact that it occupies the entire desktop area and does not allow users to perform any activities on their computers. The virus is classified in our blog as ransomware and it belong to a widely spread ransomware family known as Urausy. Use these instructions to remove fake SOCA warning (virus) off your computer.

What is Serious Organised Crime Agency, also referred to as SOCA? According the the information we retrieve from Wikipedia, SOCA stands for a non-departmental public body of the British government sponsored by the Home Office. This is a UK’s national law enforcement agency which operates within the territory of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is in partnership with many foreign law enforcement and intelligence bodies. The warning that you see on your screen right now is not associated with Serious Organised Crime Agency. Instead, what you encounter is a virus, a form of serious trojan infection developed by online hackers with the intention to scare the British nation and make users pay the fake fine (ransom) in order to unlock their computers.

It is obvious that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the primary target of the SOCA ransomware. However, computers in other countries may be attacked by this infection as well. Once this happens the Windows desktop is locked completely. By the way, pay attention to the fact that the word “Serious” was misspelled by the malware authors on the locked screen. Surely, this fact doesn’t add any credibility to the statements expressed in the virus warning.

Once the infection penetrates into computer user will encounter a lock screen when he/she logs into Windows that demands from user to pay a ransom before he/she will be permitted to access the PC normally. This virus claims to be a joint collaboration between the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), the British Metropolitan Police, Police Central e-crime Unit, Cheshire Constabulary, and Interpol to block PCs that have been engaged in illegal cyber activity associated with pornography and copyrighted content. This activity implies the spread of pornography, copyrighted information, or PC infections. The virus continues its scary practice by mentioning that user must pay a fine in the amount of £100 within 48 hours. Otherwise, the locker says, user will face legal prosecution. It is important to mention that this is a PC virus and you are not actually being traced by these law enforcement and intelligence organizations.

For the purpose of transferring the ransom you will be commanded by the virus to buy a Ukash or PaySafeCard voucher at various outlets or through E-Wallet from ePay, Paypoint, and PayZone and specify the voucher ID in a special section of the lock screen. The virus makers indicate that once they obtain the funds they will automatically unblock your desktop so that you can get access to your Windows account again. Due to the fact that this lock screen is not a legitimate warning from any governmental organization please disregard it and keep following the removal instructions to get rid of this obvious scam.

Once the screen is locked user would encounter a screen background that renders the following scary information:

Serios Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
Metropolitan British Police
Police Central e-crime Unit
Cheshire Constabulary
Interpol
Attention!
Your computer has been blocked up for safety reasons listed below.
You are accused of viewing/storage and/or dissemination of banned pornography (child pornography/zoophilia/rape etc). You have violated World Declaration on non-proliferation of child pornography. You are accused of committing the crime envisaged by Article 161 of Kingdom of Great Britain criminal law.
Article 161 of Kingdom of Great Britain criminal law provides for the punishment of deprivation of liberty for terms from 5 to 11 years.
Also, you are suspected of violation of “Copyright and Related rights Law” (downloading of pirated music, video, warez) and of use use and/or dissemination of copyrighted content. Thus, you are suspected of violation of Article 148 of Kingdom of Great Britain Criminal Law.
Article 148 of Kingdom of Great Britain criminal law provides for the punishment of deprivation of liberty for terms from 3 to 7 years or 150 to 550 basic amounts fine.
It was from your computer, that unauthorized access had been stolen to information of State importance and to data closed for public Internet access.
The penalty set must be paid in course of 48 hours as of the breach. On expiration of the term, 48 hours that follow will be used for automatic collection of data on yourself and your misconduct, and criminal case will be opened against you.
Amount of fine is £100. You can pay a fine Ukash or PaySafeCard vouchers.
As soon as the money arrives to the Treasury account, your computer will be unblocked in course of 24 hours.
Then in 7 day term you should remedy the breaches associated with your computer. Otherwise your computer will be blocked up again and criminal case will be opened against yourself (with no option to pay fine).

Obviously, the purpose of this fake SOCA warning virus is to bring money for its developers, who are the pack of cyber frauds and online crooks. Please ignore this scary warning completely and follow the removal instructions set forth below.

Recommended ransomware removal solution:

1. Restart your computer into Safe Mode with Networking. To do it, keep hitting F8 key repeatedly, before Windows OS starts booting.
2. Select your operating system and the account that got locked with ransomware.
3. When Windows launches in Safe Mode with Networking, use “Win + R” hotkey combination to open Windows Explorer.
4. In the address line insert the text “https://www.system-tips.net/download.php“
5. Click “OK”.
6. Download, install, update and run Plumbytes Anti-Malware.

7. Scan your computer with Anti-Malware and remove all detected threats.
8. Restart your computer.
9. Share this information with your friends on Facebook and other social networks.

Similar removal video at YouTube:

So, we do recommend you to try the above method initially. Then, if it does not work, try these other guides below. It is probable that these other methods will be effective solutions to fix your problem. If this information has been helpful to you please share it with other friends of yours.

Alternative removal guides to remove ransomware from your computer:

1. Ransomware removal in Safe Mode with Networking – https://www.system-tips.net/ransomware-removal-in-safe-mode-with-networking/
2. Removal of ransomware that modifies “Shell” registry entry – https://www.system-tips.net/remove-ransomware-that-modifies-shell-registry-entry/
3. Removal of ransomware that replaces explorer.exe file – https://www.system-tips.net/ransomware-that-replaces-explorer-exe-file-guide-to-unlock/

Optional ransomware removal through System Restore:

https://www.system-tips.net/how-to-unlock-computer-though-system-restore-restore-point/

Optional similar virus removal video guide (through System Restore method):

Important! If the above-mentioned guidelines didn’t help you unlock your PC, use this guide as a final solution – http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-your-computer-has-been-locked-ransomware