Fake sites claiming "Flash Player is outdated"

[Guest]

Have been encountering fake pop-ups / pop-unders such as these:

[LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR]

That claim "Flash Player is outdated" and entice you to click on their download. I don't know what lurks behind this scam but I wish Adobe could smack them around on some premise like copyright violation in order to stop this. Thanks.

[ridhij42083560]

Hi,

Thanks for reporting the issue. I will forward it to the phishing team. Next time if you encounter any such issue you can directly report them by writing to phishing@adobe.com.

Thanks!

[jeromiec83223024]

Modern browsers and operating systems make it very difficult to install malware without your permission.  With humans as the weak link in the chain, the path of least resistance is to trick you into installing malware on the attacker's behalf.

Always download installers from directly from the vendor or your operating system's app store, and never follow links from email or websites.  If in doubt, google for the software product and/or manufacturer's website.

[LMRD]

I was reading a newspaper article online when I got a pop up window on Safari from this website:

[LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR]

It looked like it can from Apple saying that my flash player was out of date for my OS version.....and asked me to click on the install button.  Didn't do it.....instead, I reached out to Adobe, but they couldn't tell me if it was a phony website or not and they didn't seem to care that some entity was using them to invade my computer.

I contacted Apple and they verified that it wasn't a legitimate Apple website, nor was it a legitimate Adobe website, but a scam much like getting an email.

Disgusted at the poor concern that Adobe had about this.

[99jon]

Like you, I always avoid clicking on unknown links.

Here is the official Adobe link, showing the most up to date release for Flash.

https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/flash-player-releasenotes.html

[_maria_]

Hi lmrd ,

Oftentimes malicious links, are removed from the forums by moderators.  If you still have the link, please report it to Adobe at phishign@adobe.com.  The appropriate folks will follow-up on it.

--

Maria

[LMRD]

Maria:

first St thing I did was send an email to Adobe’s phishing email site with the malicious link... thanks for the reminder...

[_maria_]

Thank you for doing that.