I love these guys (NOT), so very reasonable only charging you reasonable amount.

Even if this were true and or other form of ransomware how is it possible to trust anyone prepared to blackmail you to do what they say after payment. The simple answer is that you can’t.

So, never pay but ensure that you have a robust backup and recovery strategy, in the unlikely even of a scam (or actual ransomware) being true. You should be able to recover the system using your backups.