"update flash player" redirects?

[ncbill]

I'm getting redirected to "update your flash player" web pages whenever I open an updated forum thread.

I can usually click "back" and get to the thread.

It's only occurring on this site...anyone else?

Mac OS 10.12 Safari web browser.

 

[MichaelB]

No problem here on windows desktop / Mozilla or iPad.

 

[braumeister]

That request to update Flash Player would be caused by some ad that is being served to you (not everyone). It's always a good idea to update your software to the latest version just for fixes to security vulnerabilities.

 

[YakGrl]

i am getting this on Safari too. I think it may be Malware.

 

[Janet H]

You are likely seeing a popup caused by unwanted adware. DO NOT CLICK.

As you surf the internet, your machine gets cookies and other "gifts" and occasionally some of those are persistent or even malicious. I've seen numerous reports of this same thing in the past week. Good reading here: https://macsecurity.net/view/227-adobe-flash-player-update-mac-virus

This is not a new issue for mac users but seems to have been recently resurrected.

You can begin by cleaning your cookies and cache and doing a restart. You may want to run malwarebytes or some other utility to rid yourself of this. They have a free version that should do the trick

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

 

[W2R]

I'm getting redirected to this or similar sites when I go to some (not all) pages on the forum. Maybe it is due to one of the ads. I don't get it on my iPad, but do on my laptop PC (Windows 10, Edge, Norton).

I ran CCleaner to clean out cookies and so on, and then scanned used Norton and Malwarebytes but to no avail. They aren't finding anything malicious on my laptop.

 

[oldphd]

Me too!

MacBook with latest flash player...

This is the only website it happens, nowhere else. Started yesterday in earnest.

So frequent that it prevents me from using the site at times. Early yesterday could not use website, constantly came up on every page. Was able to use late yesterday for awhile. Today I got it a couple of times already.

Agreed that it's likely malware/phishing (presumably from an ad), but not sure what to do.

 

[braumeister]

Agreed that it's likely malware/phishing (presumably from an ad), but not sure what to do.

Best thing to do is what Janet H recommended above.

 

[harley]

I don't have Flash Player installed at all, due to ongoing security issues. I haven't run into a problem on this site, but any time I want to change my AA chart on Vanguard it tells me I need to install Macromedia Flash. I won't do it so I can't use that feature. Annoying. I guess they'll get around to HTML5 sometime this decade.

 

[bloom2708]

download adwcleaner.exe and see what it finds.

 

[jimbee]

I don't see that at all. I recommend installing uBlock Origin or uBlock Matrix. Blocking website ads is a security issue, and should be addressed with extreme prejudice.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

No problem (fingers crossed!) here running Safari 13.0.5 under MacOS Catalina 10.15.

 

[ncbill]

malwarebytes seems to have fixed it for now...quarantined a couple of items.

EDIT: also installed ublock

problem came back, disabled javascript...that seems to have worked.

 

[W2R]

My problem (reported in post #6 above) seems to have vanished without me doing or changing anything at all. Thank you, forum admins and staff.

 

[target2019]

download adwcleaner.exe and see what it finds.

Of course that would require OP to purchase a Windows PC to run the program!

 

[HadEnuff]

I have it on this site, bad. Tried Malware, but that did not solve the problem. I only tried the free service, but I am not inclined to buy the "Premium" product since the free download did not solve it.

I have Safari 11.1.2, on Mac OS X 10.11.6

Any other suggestions? It's driving me nuts. It does eventually stop, but I have to keep hitting the back page button, sometimes a dozen times to make it stop.

 

[target2019]

I'd buy a PC.
[emoji56]

Try all steps in this article:
https://www.lifewire.com/restoring-safari-default-settings-446560

 

[HadEnuff]

tried it all...worse now than ever....

arghhh!

 

[yakers]

I kept getting a Flash update redirect on a youtube to mp3 site that worked for otheres BUT I know I have the latest Flash and refuse to download from non Adobe site. In fact, I only activate Flash for specific sites. So any redirects are definitely suspect for malware. Love Malwarebytes

 

[scrabbler1]

I kept getting a Flash update redirect on a youtube to mp3 site that worked for otheres BUT I know I have the latest Flash and refuse to download from non Adobe site. In fact, I only activate Flash for specific sites. So any redirects are definitely suspect for malware. Love Malwarebytes

I get flash player and realplayer update popups from time to time (especially flash player). I have heard they can be from dangerous websites which can install malware. So, I always go to the adobe or realplayer websites to download any new or updated software.

 

[YakGrl]

I had the same trouble with flash player pop ups on Safari. I tried emptying cache and cookies and history, and running Malwarebytes and anything else I could think of to try. It is still a problem only for this site on Safari. I gave up and moved to reading this site on Chrome browser. That has worked so far to stop the pop ups.

 

[braumeister]

Since it only happens to some people, not everyone running the same browser and OS, it is almost certainly triggered by an ad that is targeted to only those unfortunates. Since this site has no control over which ads go to which people, and essentially almost no control over ads period, there really isn't much we can do. AFAIK, even running an ad blocker wouldn't keep this from happening. Those bad people are devious in the extreme.

 

[target2019]

On a Windows 10 PC I use Opera, Firefox, Chrome and Brave. With ad-blocking and popup-blocking enabled in various ways, I haven't seen any adware/malware problems.

 

[oldphd]

update on my situation

FWIW...

A few days ago when this started, I followed the earlier advice to clean up. This was difficult since I had trouble even reading posts, the redirects were popping up that fast. I cleaned everything up, including using a commercial product which found a flash player virus and said it was removed.

For the following two days, I would visit once each day to see if it would work, without success. Happened very quickly, could not visit this site. Wasn't seeing this anywhere else, and computer said it was clean.

Today, I visited, no further clean up, and all is well. It would seem to me that an ad was triggering it, and that it's now gone since I haven't changed anything on my computer. Trying another browser sounds like a good idea, but I didn't see that option since I couldn't access the site. I'm also on the road, so don't have access to other computers that I might have tried out.

All is well for the last hour or so, hope it continues!

 

[HadEnuff]

FWIW...

A few days ago when this started, I followed the earlier advice to clean up. This was difficult since I had trouble even reading posts, the redirects were popping up that fast. I cleaned everything up, including using a commercial product which found a flash player virus and said it was removed.

For the following two days, I would visit once each day to see if it would work, without success. Happened very quickly, could not visit this site. Wasn't seeing this anywhere else, and computer said it was clean.

Today, I visited, no further clean up, and all is well. It would seem to me that an ad was triggering it, and that it's now gone since I haven't changed anything on my computer. Trying another browser sounds like a good idea, but I didn't see that option since I couldn't access the site. I'm also on the road, so don't have access to other computers that I might have tried out.

All is well for the last hour or so, hope it continues!

Your experience mirrors mine almost exactly. No problems right now.