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Antivirus2009 holding internet users to ransom

A new scareware programme is reportedly holding internet users in the US to ransom and demanding money before allowing them to access their own documents, it has emerged.

Various internet security experts are warning that Antivirus2009 is causing havoc to consumers by encrypting and holding victims' documents to ransom in exchange for a fee.

The rogue software scares internet users into downloading it by warning them through a fake Windows alert that their files are corrupt, reports the Washington Post.

Afterwards those whose online security has been compromised by the malware are urged to download a programme named FileFixerPro, which is meant to sort out the problem.

However, once downloaded, the programme encrypts or scrambles folders in the machine, meaning that only those who pay for a FileFixerPro update can have their documents unencrypted.

Compromised users can avoid the fee by following instructions from computer-help forum BleepingComputer.com on how to remove the malware but this is at the expense of not being able to recover their documents.

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