What is Charm Ransomware?
There are several symptoms of the successful entrance of Charm Ransomware. The most noticeable one is, without a doubt, the inability to open any personal files stored on the device. Usually, ransomware infections leave system files unencrypted because they focus on the extraction of money and do not try to ruin computers. Their primary goal is to obtain money from affected users. Charm Ransomware will try to obtain money from you too if you ever encounter it. This is the reason it locks files on affected computers as well. If your files have already been locked, there is nothing much you can do about that. Yes, you will be told that you could unlock them with a decryption key and a special tool that cyber criminals have, but you should refrain from purchasing it no matter how badly you need your files back. You simply do not know whether you will get it from cyber criminals. If they do not send you the tool you have paid for, there is, unfortunately, nothing you could do to get it from them. The ransomware infection will not be automatically removed from the system for you.
What does Charm Ransomware do?
Charm Ransomware is a threat that targets servers (databases) primarily. Unfortunately, it is very likely that it can infiltrate ordinary personal computers as well. You will definitely notice if this ever happens because you could no longer open any of your files, and they will all have the .charm extension appended to them. Luckily, Charm Ransomware does not ruin any system files, so your computer/server will continue working normally after its successful entrance. There is one more sign showing that Charm Ransomware has entered the system successfully. If you can locate HOW_TO_RETURN_FILEs.txt, there is no doubt that this is the malicious application you have encountered. It does not seem to be a very sophisticated threat, i.e. it does not disable system utilities and does lock the screen unlike some other threats, but it uses AES-256, one of the most secure encryption algorithms that exist, in order to lock files found on the affected computer. To get the tool that can unlock encrypted files, victims have to write a message to fmhir@protonmail.com. Do not expect that this tool will be given to you free of charge because this is not going to happen. The size of the ransom cyber criminals expect to receive from users is not indicated in the ransom note, but it is very likely that you will have to pay a ransom in Bitcoin because two websites where Bitcoin can be purchased from are left for users. Do not even consider paying money to cyber criminals. We know important files have been encrypted on your system, but you have to understand that there are no guarantees that you could unlock them after you make a payment, so you should restore your files from a backup instead if it is possible.
Where does Charm Ransomware come from?
We are not going to lie to you – we cannot tell you what the exact method is used to spread Charm Ransomware; however, we suspect that one of several widely-used distribution methods are used to promote it. For example, cyber criminals might send this infection to a handful of users whose emails have ended up in their hands one way or another. In such a case, users end up with malware when they open a malicious attachment from an email received. Also, users might download and install the ransomware infection on their computers themselves. There is a bunch of threats out there that are spread masqueraded as reliable software, so it is not surprising at all that some users download them consciously. It does not take long to find out that the installed program is ransomware – all files get encrypted in no time.
How to remove Charm Ransomware
Charm Ransomware must be removed from the affected system immediately. Do not be so sure that it will not cause you any other problems just because it has already encrypted personal files on your computer – it can strike again and lock all new files. You can prevent this from happening only by deleting this threat fully. Please find our instructions provided below and perform the removal steps ones by one to get rid of all active infections.
Charm Ransomware removal guide
- Open Windows Explorer.
- Access the folder you keep your downloads in (e.g., %USERPROFILE%\Desktop or %USERPROFILE%\Downloads).
- Remove the malicious executable file launched.
- Check %TEMP% and %APPDATA% folders.
- Remove malicious files if you detect any.
- Remove HOW_TO_RETURN_FILES.txt from your PC.
- Empty Recycle Bin.
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