BMO Ransomware (.bmo files) — How to remove virus?

The Bmo virus belongs to the Dharma ransomware family. Ransomware of this type encrypts all the data on your computer (photos, text files, excel sheets, audio files, videos, etc) and appends its own extension to every file, leaving the info.txt files in each directory which contains the encrypted files.

What is Bmo?

☝️ A scientifically correct description for the Bmo would be “a Dharma family ransomware infection”.

The renaming will be done according to this pattern: id-*******.[email address].bmo. As a part of encryption, a file entitled, for instance, “report.docx” will be turned into “report.docx.id-924CBVA76.[[email protected]].bmo”.

In each directory that contains the encoded files, a info.txt text document will be found. It is a ransom money memo. It contains information about the ways of paying the ransom and some other remarks. The ransom note most probably contains a description of how to buy the decryption tool from the tamperers. You can obtain this decrypting software after contacting [email protected] by email. That is it.

Bmo overview:

In the screenshot below, you can see what a directory with files encrypted by the Bmo looks like. Each filename has the “.id-*******.[email address].bmo” extension added to it.

How did my machine catch Bmo ransomware?

There are many possible ways of ransomware infiltration.

There are currently three most popular ways for tamperers to have the Bmo virus working in your digital environment. These are email spam, Trojan infiltration and peer-to-peer networks.

If you open your mailbox and see emails that look like familiar notifications from utility services providers, delivery agencies like FedEx, web-access providers, and whatnot, but whose sender is unknown to you, beware of opening those emails. They are most likely to have a malware item attached to them. Thus it is even more dangerous to download any attachments that come with emails like these.

As for the peer file transfer protocols like torrents or eMule, the threat is that they are even more trust-based than the rest of the Web. You can never know what you download until you get it. So you’d better be using trustworthy websites. Also, it is a good idea to scan the folder containing the downloaded items with the anti-malware utility as soon as the downloading is done.

How do I get rid of the Bmo virus?

It is crucial to note that besides encrypting your data, the Bmo virus will most likely install the Azorult Spyware on your machine to seize your credentials to various accounts (including cryptocurrency wallets). The mentioned program can extract your logins and passwords from your browser’s auto-filling data.

Often tamperers would unblock few of your files to prove that they indeed have the decryption program. As Bmo virus is a relatively new ransomware, security software engineers have not yet found a way to undo its work. However, the decryption tools are constantly upgraded, so the effective countermeasure may soon arrive.

Sure thing, if the hackers succeed in encoding someone’s critical files, the desperate person will probably comply with their demands. Despite that, paying to racketeers does not necessarily mean that you’re getting your blocked information back. It is still dangerous. After receiving the ransom, the racketeers may send a wrong decryption code to the injured party. There were reports about hackers simply disappearing after getting the money without even writing back.

The optimal solution against ransomware is to have a system restore point or the copies of your essential files in the cloud disk or at least on an external storage. Of course, that might be insufficient. The most crucial thing could be that one you were working on when it all happened. Nevertheless, it is something. It is also reasonable to scan your PC for viruses with the antivirus program after the system is rolled back.

There are other ransomware products, besides Bmo, that work similarly. Examples of those are Xcmb, Hudf, Yjqs, and some others. The two major differences between them and the Bmo are the ransom amount and the encoding method. The rest is the same: documents become encrypted, their extensions changed, ransom notes are created in every folder containing encoded files.

Some lucky users were able to decrypt the blocked files with the aid of the free tools provided by anti-ransomware specialists. Sometimes the racketeers mistakenly send the decryption code to the wronged in the ransom readme. Such an extraordinary fail allows the victim to restore the files. But naturally, one should never rely on such a chance. Remember, ransomware is a criminals’ tool to pull the money out of their victims.

How сan I avert ransomware infection?

Bmo ransomware doesn’t have a endless power, so as any similar malware.

You can armour your system from its infiltration in three easy steps:

• Never open any letters from unknown senders with strange addresses, or with content that has likely no connection to something you are waiting for (can you win in a lottery without participating in it?). If the email subject is likely something you are waiting for, check all elements of the suspicious email carefully. A hoax email will surely contain a mistake.
• Do not use cracked or untrusted programs. Trojans are often distributed as a part of cracked products, most likely as a “patch” preventing the license check. But untrusted programs are very hard to tell from reliable software, as trojans may also have the functionality you seek. Try searching for information on this program on the anti-malware forums, but the optimal way is not to use such software.

Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft³

Download Removal Tool.

Run the setup file.

Press “Install” button.

Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.

Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.

Click on “Clean Now”.

Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 Can I somehow access “.id-*******.[email address].bmo” files?

Negative. That is why ransomware is so frustrating. Until you decode the “.id-*******.[email address].bmo” files you will not be able to access them.

🤔 I really need to decrypt those “.id-*******.[email address].bmo” files ASAP. How can I do that?

If the “.id-*******.[email address].bmo” files contain some really important information, then you probably have them backed up. In case you haven’t, there is still a chance that you do have a Restore Point from some time ago to roll back the whole system to the moment when it had no virus yet, but already had your files. All other solutions require time.

🤔 What to do if the Bmo malware has blocked my PC and I can’t get the activation code.

🤔 And what should I do now?

Many of the blocked files might still be within your reach

• If you exchanged your critical files by email, you could still download them from your online mailbox.
• You might have shared photographs or videos with your friends or relatives. Simply ask them to post those pictures back to you.
• If you have initially got any of your files from the Web, you can try to do it again.
• Your messengers, social media pages, and cloud drives might have all those files as well.
• It might be that you still have the needed files on your old PC, a laptop, phone, external storage, etc.

HINT: You can employ file recovery utilities⁵ to retrieve your lost information since ransomware arrests the copies of your files, removing the authentic ones. In the video below, you can learn how to recover your files with PhotoRec, but be advised: you can do it only after you remove the virus with an anti-malware program.

Also, you can contact the following governmental fraud and scam sites to report this attack:

• In the United States: On Guard Online;
• In Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre;
• In the United Kingdom: Action Fraud;
• In Australia: SCAMwatch;
• In New Zealand: Consumer Affairs Scams;
• In France: Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information;
• In Germany: Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik;
• In Ireland: An Garda Síochána;

To report the attack, you can contact local executive boards. For instance, if you live in USA, you can have a talk with FBI Local field office, IC3 or Secret Service.

1. My files are encrypted by ransomware, what should I do now?
2. Here are Top 10 Data Recovery Software Of 2023.