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Showing posts from May, 2011

Alert: "You need to upgrade your Flash Player" scam

Recently I found a few instances where when I click Play on videos shown on the Facebook homepage (which displays the news feed), I get a message in place of the video that says "You need to upgrade your Flash Player" followed by a button called "Upgrade Now" Be warned! This is a scam to get spyware and viruses installed into your computer. I have once clicked the button and immediately realized my mistake when I noticed that the browser is attempting to download an executable file that looked extremely suspicious. On researching further about the origins of the file, I have found that it comes from a spyware making company (of sorts). If you want to check whether you have the latest version of Flash Player, just go to this page in the official Adobe Flash website. It will show you the latest version of flash player, and the version you have installed. Also note that Adobe Flash does not alert you of an update the way the scam does. Besides, videos will still p