International Police Association screen lock

How to remove International Police Association (I.P.A.) scam  from your computer?

International Police Association screen locker is another scam released by Internet criminals. This scam targets European computer users by displaying fake information and asking to pay a fine for supposedly distributing copyrighted content. Recently such screen lockers has become very popular among Cyber criminals and many computer users are seeing such fake message on their screens. To distribute this ransomware Internet criminals are using various misleading strategies, most commonly Internet Police Association scam is disguised as a software update, for example you click on some online video and you are asked to download a flash player update, instead of the update you will install this screen locker.

Other common way of infecting your PC with such scam is email messages, Internet criminals are actively using spam campaigns to trick computer users into installing this misleading software on their machines. After installation International Police Association screen locker will make some modifications to your operating system's registry and will set itself to start automatically on every system start-up. Every time you boot your PC you will see a full screen International Police Association warning message stating that you have to pay a fine for copyrighted content, you won't be able to access your desktop.

International Police Association screen locker is similar to other ransomware that is being distributed by Internet criminals. While this scam exploits the name of International Police Association some other versions are using a name of FBI (example: FBI Your Computer Has Been Locked scam). Notice that none of the authorities are using such screen lockers to collect fines for Internet piracy, these messages are fake. Use this removal guide to remove IPA screen locker from your computer.

Fake message shown in International Police Association ransomware:

International Police Association - IAC International Administration Center All activity of this computer has been recorded. If you use web-cam, videos and pictures were saved for identification.
Illegally downloaded material (MP3's Movies or Software) has been located on your computer. By downloading, those were reproduced, thereby involving a criminal offense under Section 106 of Copyright Act. The downloading of copyrighted material via the Internet or music sharing networks is illegal and is in accordance with Section 106 of the Copyright Act subject to a fine or imprisonment for a penalty of up to 3 years
Furthermore possession of illegally downloaded material is punishable under Section 184 paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code and may also lead to
the confiscation of the computer, with which the files were downloaded. Please note: The fine may only be paid within 48 hours, if you let 48 hours pass without payment, the possibility of unlocking your computer expires.

This fake message is changed according to your location. This ransomware detects your IP address and correspondingly displays a message in your language. For example if you live in Germany you will see such message: Ihr Computer wurde gesperrt. Ihr Computer wurde durch das System der automatischen Informationskontrolle gesperrt.

International Police Association screen locker removal:

Step 1

During your computer starting process press F8 key on your keyboard multiple times until Windows Advanced Options menu shows up, then select Safe mode with networking from the list and press ENTER.

Step 2

Log in to the account that is infected with International Police Association scam. Start your Internet browser and download a legitimate anti-spyware program. Update the anti-spyware software and start a full system scan. Remove all the entries that it detects.

remover for International Police Association scam

After completing these steps your computer should be clean, reboot your computer in normal mode.

Alternative International Police Association scam removal guide:

If this ransomware blocks your screen when you start your computer in safe mode with networking, try starting your PC in safe mode with command prompt.

1. During your computer starting process press F8 key on your keyboard multiple times until Windows Advanced Options menu shows up, then select Safe mode with command prompt from the list and press ENTER.

2. In the opened command prompt type explorer and press Enter. This command will open explorer window, don't close it and continue to the next step.

3. In the command prompt type regedit and press Enter. This will open the registry editor window.

4. In the registry editor window you should navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

5. In the right side of the window locate "Shell" and right click on it. Click on Modify. The default value data is Explorer.exe if you see something else written in this window remove it and type in Explorer.exe (you can write down whatever else was written in the value data section - this is a path of the rogue execution file) - use this information to navigate to the rogue executable and remove it.

6. Restart your computer, download and install a legitmate anti-spyware software and perform a full system scan to eliminate any left remnants of International Police Association scam.

remover for International Police Association scam

If you can't start your computer in safe mode with networking (or with command prompt) you should boot your computer using a rescue disk. Some variants of ransomware disables safe mode making it's removal more complicated. For this step you will need access to another computer. After removing International Police Association scam from your PC restart your computer and scan it with a legitimate antispyware software to remove any possibly left remnants of this security infection.

Other tools known to remove International Police Association scam:

• iS3 STOPzilla
• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Some malicious software modifies browser settings and disables downloads of spyware and virus removing software. If you have problems downloading anti-spyware software with Internet Explorer, try downloading with Chrome, FireFox, Opera, etc.

If you can't access Internet:

Load your computer in safe mode. Click Start, click Shut down, click Restart, click OK. During your computer starting process press F8 key on your keyboard multiple times until you see Windows Advanced Option menu, then select Safe mode with networking from the list.

Start Task manager. Press ctrl+alt+del (or ctrl+shift+esc) and end task the processes of rogue program. ( if after this procedure you can't access any programs press ctrl+alt+del, click File, select New Task, and type explorer.exe then press OK.

Open Internet explorer, click Tools and select Internet Options. Select Connections, then click LAN settings, if a Use a proxy server for your LAN is checked, un-check it and press OK.

After this procedure you should be able to access Internet. Now you can download anti-spyware software from our "Top spyware removers" section and run a full scan. Download, install and don't forget to update your selected anti-spyware program.

Manual International Police Association scam removal:

Note that some ransomware can come bundled with rootkits and other security infections, if you can't load your operating system in safe mode you should use a Rescue Disk. Follow these instructions to start your computer from a Rescue Disk. - How to boot your computer using a rescue disk? After following these instructions your computer should be free from International Police Association screen locker.