# My Firefox froze up with a message purporting to be from the FBI **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-firefox-froze-up-with-a-message-purporting-to-be-from-the-fbi/630792 "2012-08-07T22:12:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-firefox-froze-up-with-a-message-purporting-to-be-from-the-fbi/630792/1 "2012-08-07T22:12:27Z")
I’ve not started to diagnose this yet. I hit “Esc” key and got a message from the FBI informing me that I had to got to K-Mart, Walgreens or 7-11 and pay a $200 fine within the next 72 hours. The message is full screen and I cannot even get out to run anti-malware utilities. This is MPSIMS isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-firefox-froze-up-with-a-message-purporting-to-be-from-the-fbi/630792/2 "2012-08-07T22:26:00Z")
And it’s also a scam. Don’t do it. Hulpful page: [How to remove FBI virus (Ransomware Removal Guide)](http://botcrawl.com/how-to-remove-the-fbi-moneypak-ransomware-virus-fake-fbi-malware-removal/) ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-firefox-froze-up-with-a-message-purporting-to-be-from-the-fbi/630792/3 "2012-08-08T00:49:52Z")
Maybe a dumb question, but does alt-F4 make it go away?