Joseph Edwards, 17, hanged himself after receiving a bogus email claiming he’d been spotted browsing illegal websites and that a fine of 100 pound needed to be paid in order to stop the police from pursuing him. The scam email pushed the well-known Police Ransomware onto the boy’s laptop and also downloaded malware that locked up his system once it was opened. Police believe it may have originated outside the UK, but it will be almost impossible to trace the fraudsters behind the ‘crude’ email. Police ransomware of this type does not encrypt files and usually asks a victim to pay a small fine.
Source: https://thehackernews.com/2015/01/police-ransomware-suicide.html