How to Remove "Access to your computer was denied" Browser Privacy Virus

Written by Tomas Meskauskas on December 30, 2013

"Access to your computer was denied" browser piracy virus removal instructions

The message, "Access to your computer was denied. Illegally downloaded music tracks (in other words, 'pirated copies') have been detected on your PC", appears when browsing the Internet and is a scam. It is a ransomware virus that affects Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari.

This rogue pop-up is created by cybercriminals hoping that unsuspecting Internet users will fall for the fake message and pay a $100 or 100 Euro bogus fine using Paysafecard. The fine is purportedly for the user having pirated copies of music files (supposedly detected) on their computers. In fact, paying this fine is equivalent to sending money directly to cybercriminals.

Computer users should be aware that no authorities worldwide use pop-up messages to collect fines for any law violations. Cybercriminals merely exploit the names of the FBI, AKM, SABAM, GVU, PRS, and many others to lend authenticity to their rogue messages.

This fake message is categorized as ransomware. However, it did not block users' attempts to close the browser window containing the fake message at the time of research. At this time, it is not clear whether cybercriminals have deliberately not implemented browser locking using JavaScript (as seen in other browser locking ransomware) or whether this ransomware is still in the development stage. Commonly, this ransomware is proliferated using malicious or hacked websites.

This scam did not use any rogue Java scripts to block users' attempts to close their Internet browsers or opened tabs at the time of research. Computer users who discover these fake pop-up messages should ignore them and close their Internet browsers.

After closing these rogue pop-ups, scan your computer for possible malware infections.

Scan your computer for possible malware infections

Initially, this ransomware infection 'scans' users' computers for pirated copies of music files:

Fake browser piracy scan

After a few seconds, this ransomware mimics the detection of several illegally downloaded music files:

For example: Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (C:\Downloads\miley cyrus - wrecking ball.mp3); PSY - Gangnam Style (C:\Downloads\psy - gangnam style.mp3); etc.

Fake browser privacy scan results

After the fake scan, users are presented with a message demanding a $100 or 100 Euro fine to avoid a criminal case. At the time of research, cybercriminals were targeting 13 countries with localized variants of their fake messages: United States, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, and Portugal.

United States - FBI "Access to your computer was denied"

Browser Piracy ransomware virus targeted at USA