The piece of legislation, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), was dropped from United States Congress in January of this year. But it has returned, just not in the same form.
This time SOPA is showing up on users PC’s. Basically it is a virus that uses the SOPA bill to scare victims into paying $200. The virus locks down your computer and then only offers to unlock it if you pay the fee. This scam uses a lot of American government seals to make it look official and genuine.
It warns the victim that their IP address is on a blacklist after distributing illegal content. It then tells the victim to send a MoneyPak or a Western Union wire to pay for their fee. If the user doesn’t pay up, the virus threaten the user saying they will lose all their data.
It won’t delete all of your data on your PC, but it should be removed as soon as possible.
