The first message to pop up on the computer screen let the victims know they had been hacked. The second message gave them a way out.

The victim had a choice: Pay the hackers a ransom of one bitcoin, a digital currency worth roughly $2,365, in exchange for regaining access to the computer, or try to infect two new people on behalf of the attackers. If someone the victim knew fell for the bait and became infected, the attackers would consider the ransom paid and cede control of the infected computer.

The attack late last year was, according to the cybersecurity researchers who discovered what they now call the Popcorn Time ransomware, the first Ponzi scheme for one of the internet’s oldest types of cyberattacks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/technology/hackers-ransomware-bitcoin-ponzi-wannacry.html

Also see:

How Bots Are Inflating Instagram Egos
I posted a picture in March of the New York Times headquarters looking serene before a snowstorm to my Instagram account. The photo attracted 11 comments, all from strangers. “Very nice!” a monthly cocktail delivery company in San Francisco wrote. A cosmetic tattoo artist in Vancouver, British Columbia, posted three fire symbol emojis, and a vintage furniture seller in San Jose, Calif., left an emoji of a heart with a bow around it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/business/media/instagram-bots.html