Leo sat in the dark glow of his laptop monitor, watching a loading bar crawl across the screen. It was late, and the house was dead silent except for the faint hum of his computer fan. He was trying to download the Film Plus Mod Lite APK, a modified version of a popular streaming app that promised ad-free access to thousands of movies.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, his screen flickered violently. A barrage of command prompt windows opened and closed in rapid succession. Leo frantically tried to move his mouse, but the cursor was frozen. A massive red window locked his screen with a message in broken English: "Your files are now encrypted. Pay 0.1 Bitcoin to recover."

He had found the link on a shady, neon-colored forum after digging through dozens of dead links. The site was plastered with flashing pop-up ads claiming his computer was infected and counting down timers that pressured him to click. Leo knew better than to click the bait, but his desire to watch his favorite show without interruptions pushed him to take the risk.