Law enforcement authorities were flabbergasted when a young man from Virginia, U.S., had unwittingly went to his county's local police station to turn himself in as well as inquire for existing warrants issued against him on child pornography charges. The police could hardly believe their luck. It turned out the man had received a fake FBI online warning alert ordering him to pay a fine for child pornography found on his computer.

The fake FBI online warning alert had been a computer virus called 'ransomware.' As defined by TechTarget, ransomware is "malware for data kidnapping, an exploit in which the attacker encrypts the victim's data and demands payment for the decryption key." It infiltrates a PC as a computer worm or Trojan horse. Ransomware attacks occur after clicking an infected email attachment or visiting a hacked website.

Duped by Virus Posing as Fake FBI Online Warning Alert, U.S. Man Surrenders Himself to Authorities for Child Pornography

Jay Riley, a 21-year-old from Prince William County, Virginia, however, after police inspected his computer, had been found to be truly storing child pornography in it. What's more, police found "inappropriate messages and photos, including from a 13-year-old Minnesota girl" that were stored in his tech device.

What follows was more than Mr Riley could ever imagine could happen to him. Police then immediately executed a search of his home to take possession of all computers and electronic devices.

Afterwards, police slapped the young man with "three counts of possession of child pornography, one count of using a communication device to solicit certain offenses involving children, and one count of indecent liberties with a minor."

"I think the pop-up kind of scared him," Officer Jonathan Perok, Prince William County Police spokesman, told WJLA-TV. "We've never had a case like this, I'm safe to say that, But the nature of what we have here is quite significant and severe."

Mr Riley is being held without bond at this time.