MacCleaner and other pesky add-ins upon installation of Flash?

Question

My current Flash updates have been deviled by automatic installation of MacCleaner and other pernicious add-ins that take over my browser and constantly ask whether I want to clean my system, etc.

Full disclosure: I worked for Adobe for eight years and even did some Flash documentation. I just grew to trust the installer and went with everything they suggested.

This time around, I was savvy to the problem and declined MacCleaner and so on. Yet, at the end of installation, I saw a screen (the Yes button obviously worked; the No button was unresponsive) asking me to play some game or another. The only way out was to close the browser.

I'm running OS X 10.10.1 on a Mac Book Air. My version of Flash is 23.0.0.205. My browser version is Safari 8.02.

Is this some kind of hack, or has Adobe really resorted to this? I can't believe that's so. Anyone else have this problem?

_maria_ · Answer

Hi,Flash Player installers do not include MacCleaner. I suspect you downloaded a malicious Flash Player installer from a site other than adobe.com which included MacCleaner. This is a sampling of some of the fake installers out there: Beware bogus Adobe Flash "installers" | Communities​. Adobe does actively respond to these fake installers. If you have the URL from where you downloaded the fake installer from you can either private message it to me or send it directly to phishing@adobe.com (see Notifying Adobe of Security Issues​).--Maria

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