An email promising funny pictures of Britney Spears is probably more likely to install malware on your machine than to brighten up your day with more of the singer s zany antics. Known as scareware, these scams are designed to trick a user into thinking that they have a virus or piece of spyware on his PC, and then preys on the user’s fear to entice him into downloading a piece of malicious software masquerading as antivirus or antispyware.
Source: https://threatpost.com/how-avoid-scareware-attacks-061809/72850/