my @chars = split //,$folder;
foreach (@chars){
   if($_ eq "*" || $_ eq '$' || $_ eq "&" || $_ eq "." || $_ eq "?" ||
+ $_ eq '\'){
[download]

Ignoring for now whether that's the right set of reserved characters, your code can be written far more succinctly and efficiently as

if ($folder =~ /[$&.?\\]/) {
[download]

Dave.