"Update Flash Player" Mac Scam - How to remove

The “Update Flash Player” scam is harassing Mac users with fake macOS system alerts. It is meant to make money for shady advertising companies by tricking people to install some malware. These fake “Update Flash Player” sites have nothing to do with the real Adobe and actually download an adware installer called AdobeFlashPlayerInstaller.dmg (VirusTotal report).

How “Update Flash Player” works

Fake Flash Player update scams are very varied and unfortunately common. We describe them more in-depth in our article “Your Flash Player might be out of date” scam.

The pop-ups

People usually encounter the “Update Flash Player” scam as they’re browsing the web normally. Click on the wrong ad or venture to a site that happens to be infected – and you risk having a site with “Update Flash Player” open in your browser.

At first, an alert on a black screen appears. It says:

Update to the latest version of Flash Player. Your current Adobe Flash Player version is out of date.

Flash Player updates are mostly a thing of the past and you can surf the web just fine without it (a few old sites still require it). So, pop-ups like “Update Flash Player” should be immediately suspicious:

Type of threat	Trojan, adware.
Dangers of falling for the fake update scam	Adware and browser hijackers installed, the adware shows dangerous ads, including fraud and malware.
Causes of the “Update Flash Player” pop-up	Visiting websites that show malicious ads, having an adware infection that forces the browser to open bad websites.
How to stop “Update Flash Player” ads	Find out if you’re infected with adware (Combo Cleaner), disable suspicious browser extensions, clear browser data (will log you out of some websites), block known malicious URLs.

When the pop-up appears, system sounds might also be played through your speakers to add to the seriousness of the whole thing. If you click to close the alert, “Update Flash Player” shows a fake system window:

“Flash Player” for your browser is out-of-date

Flash cannot be used until you download an update from Adobe.

This pop-up gives you options to “Update” and “Download Flash…”, which both download the AdobeFlashPlayerInstaller.dmg file. This window is made to look like it’s being shown by your Mac OS. The creators of “Update Flash Player” went as far as to make the boxes draggable. This is actually really easy to implement in a website and adds to the illusion that “Update Flash Player” is a legitimate warning.

On top of that, a notification appears on the page with this text:

Install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player in order to continue watching.

If your mouse wanders on the “Software update” window, it might stick to your mouse, right on the Download button. Moving the mouse then drags the pop-up with it. If you accidentally click it, the fake update file will be downloaded.

Dangers of the “Update Flash Player” scam

Some of the text used by “Update Flash Player” implies that those who encounter the “Update Flash Player” scam find it while watching online videos. In fact, fake software update warnings do often appear on online streaming sites (the free, not-exactly-legal kind). Also on piracy sites, in ads delivered by notification spammers, and any random sites that show infected ads. There’s no way to know to which websites the “Update Flash Player” scam will be limited because, in the past, even some legitimate ones ended up spreading malware via fake software updates.

Pirating is dangerous in general – all sorts of harmful ads are allowed to appear on those sites. If you’re experienced in them, you know how to weave around the pop-ups and redirects to get to the content. However, the “Update Flash Player” warning is more persistent and annoying than a normal pop-up. With the somewhat well-made fakes of Mac OS system windows, it can fool even experienced users.

And if people are fooled, installing the files downloaded from “Update Flash Player” can cause some real harm. The adware bundle AdobeFlashPlayerInstaller.dmg will take over your browser, extract your browsing history, and show a bunch of pop-ups, banners, even system alerts that spread more malware, scams, adware, shady medical products, and whatever other content that is banned from normal ad-networks for being too vulnerable to fraud and too dangerous to users.

Examples of malware distributed by “Update Flash Player” include the ProductEvent adware and its family of hijackers and various fake antivirus apps (which are also spread by fake Mac warnings). These things can fill your browser with ads, open malicious websites, install malware that causes crashes, and stress you out with exaggerated reports on the problems of your Mac. And they can be extremely difficult to uninstall manually.

How to deal with the “Update Flash Player” scam

The fake software update site “Update Flash Player” should only appear once in a while, when you click on a really bad ad or end up redirected by the website you’re on.

Some people might see it constantly, though. Regular “Update Flash Player” pop-ups might be caused by a malicious browser extension, an adware virus, or some data saved by your browser. So, you might need to remove suspicious extensions, scan your Mac for adware (use a trusted security program, for example, Combo Cleaner), and possibly even delete saved browser data, like cashed content.

You could block the sites that spread “Update Flash Player”. Antivirus scanners with web filters and some ad blockers allow you to add sites to a blacklist. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to completely block “Update Flash Player” because there’s no telling which sites will spread the Mac update scam. After all, it’s easy for criminals to get a new URL once the old ones get blocked everywhere. By the way, it comes in Yourfine4updatesset.best, Yourfine2upgradeultimate.best, and similar URLs.

To avoid malicious ads and scams like “Update Flash Player” as much as possible, check your security and privacy settings in your browser and operating system. Also, scan every file that you download with an antivirus scanner.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam and other suspicious extensions.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences and choose General tab. Enter preferable URL to the homepage field.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings(older versions) If you are still experiencing any issues related to "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari…
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopHow to remove "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam from Google Chrome on Mac:

• Open Chrome browser.
• Enter in the url field “chrome://extensions” address and hit Enter.
• Find "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam on the extensions list and click on the recycle bin icon next to it.
• Click on 'Chrome' button at the top left corner. Select 'Preferences' on a drop-down menu box.
• Find 'Search' options on Settings tab. If your search engine is changed, click 'Manage Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• On the same page find 'Show home button' checkbox and change your homepage.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• On the 'Preferences' menu window, scroll down to the bottom and find 'Reset settings' button. Click it.
• Confirm your selection and click 'Reset' on the following window.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.
Top

How To remove "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam from Firefox on Mac OS:

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press cmd+Shift+A on your keyboard).
• Go through Extensions list, remove everything "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
• Enter “about:preferences” in URL bar and hit enter.
• Open Search settings tab.
• If your search engine is changed, click 'Default Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Preferences-> General. Enter a preferable URL to the home page field.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to "Update Flash Player" Mac Scam, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.