Warlocks Virus Ransomware (. Warlocks File) — Removal Guide

Warlocks virus: what is known so far?

Warlocks will add its own .warlocks extension to every file’s title. For example, an image entitled “photo.jpg” will be changed to “photo.jpg.warlocks”. Likewise, the Excel file named “table.xlsx” will be altered to “table.xlsx.warlocks”, and so forth.

In every folder containing the encrypted files, a read_it.txt text document will be found. It is a ransom money note. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains instructions on how to purchase the decryption tool from the racketeers. That is it.

The read_it.txt file accompanying the Warlocks malware states the following:

Warlocks Dark Army Hacker Group Ransomware
All of your files have been encrypted
Your computer was infected with a ransomware virus. Your files have been encrypted by AES-256 Military Algorithm and you won\'t be able to decrypt them without our help. What can I do to get my files back? 
You can buy our special decryption software, this software will allow you to recover all of your data and remove the
ransomware from your computer. The price for the software is $200. Payment can be made in Bitcoin only.
How do I pay, where do I get Bitcoin?
Purchasing Bitcoin varies from country to country, you are best advised to do a quick google search
yourself  to find out how to buy Bitcoin. 
Many of our customers have reported these sites to be fast and reliable:
Coinmama - hxxps:// Bitpanda - hxxps://

Payment information. Amount: $200 worth Bitcoin
Bitcoin Address:  bc1qw0ll8p9m8uezhqhyd7z459ajrk722yn8c5j4fg

Once payment is done, Please contact @CattyLola or @WARLOCK_MAK to get your decryption software, private key and instrutions to decrypt your computer.

In the image below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Warlocks looks like. Each filename has the “.warlocks” extension appended to it.

How did Warlocks ransomware end up on my PC?

Nowadays, there are three most popular methods for hackers to have the Warlocks virus planted in your system. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer networks.

If you open your inbox and see letters that look just like notifications from utility services companies, postal agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose addresser is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are very likely to have a malware file enclosed in them. Therefore, it is even riskier to open any attachments that come with letters like these.

Another thing the hackers might try is a Trojan file model². A Trojan is a program that infiltrates into your computer pretending to be something else. For instance, you download an installer of some program you want or an update for some program. But what is unboxed turns out to be a harmful program that corrupts your data. Since the installation wizard can have any name and any icon, you’d better be sure that you can trust the source of the things you’re downloading. The optimal thing is to use the software companies’ official websites.

As for the peer file transfer protocols like BitTorrent or eMule, the danger is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Internet. You can never know what you download until you get it. Our suggestion is that you use trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the directory containing the downloaded files with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is finished.