WJLA screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

As far as I am aware, the FBI doesn't usually send you a pop-up online notice, asking if you could kindly pay a fine for child pornography.

Perhaps I should check with Edward Snowden to be sure.

Still, 21-year-old Virginian Jay Riley was sufficiently stunned to receive a pop-up "FBI Warning" telling him to pay a fine for child pornography that he went to his local police station in Prince William County.

As WJLA-TV reports it, Riley asked if he was, indeed, wanted on child pornography charges.

In what seems like a helpful and open frame of mind, he allegedly offered the police his computer for examination.

There, the police allegedly found child pornography.

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Prince William County Police spokesman Officer Jonathan Perok told WJLA-TV: "I think the pop-up kind of scared him."

The pop-up was an example of Reveton ransomware, which monitors those who might log on to a questionable Web site and then tries to extort money from them.

It claims to lock the user's computer unless a fine is paid.

"We've never had a case like this," Perok told WJLA-TV.

Riley is currently in jail, facing at least three child pornography charges, related to alleged inappropriate messages and images found on his computer.

Police subsequently searched his home and took away more computers.