Will winlock virus really delete information after 12 hours? [closed]

Question

I've got virus which tells that all data will be deleted after 12 hours. I cleaned autorun and now scaning my computer with anti-virus, but still is this message just to scary people or is this virus installed something, that will delete data or simply run "format c:" after time passed?

This thing looks like message box in the middle of the screen, that prevents to call anything: task manager or console. Text in that box something like: "You broke the law, so you must pay penalty for this". And there given mobile phone number and field where you must type the code to unlock it, after you payed. Also it says something like: "If you won't pay in 12 hours, your data will be erased and if you try to reinstall windows it will damage your computer".

Answer 1

Winlock is very widespread class of viruses in Russia (classified as Trojan-Ransom by Kaspersky). It's a name for a class of viruses that lock your OS or browser and extort money after it. One subkinds of it may edit hosts file, register, encrypt files, other work using another methods. One will actually delete the data, other will not.

Countermeasures against different viruses are also different. But according to data that you specified you may deal with kind of virus specified here. Translate it into English, if you don't know russian

Answer 2

I hate to say it, @Dracontis, but this question does not provide enough information to identify the particular piece of malware you may have, what it may do, or answer your particular questions. It is possible this is simply a piece of "scareware" which tries to scare you -- but it is also possible it might be more nasty and actually delete data.

In any case, it is probably not worth your time to try to identify the exact virus you may have been infected with. Instead, I suggest that you run your anti-virus software to clean up the malware as best as possible. You might also want to consult this Malware Removal Guide for Windows for instructions on how to remove the malware from your machine. After finishing those steps, you might want to backup your data, just in case.