This isn’t a new trick but scammers still try it. An email is sent telling the story of a tragic accident that’s happened (e.g. a nuclear meltdown in some city). There’s a link to a website with photos. It seems interesting except you’re asked to download a plugin (or codec) to view the photos.
You don’t need any plugins or codecs to view photos. And more importantly, the story about a nuclear meltdown or whatever other large disaster they think of is most probably false.
Be very cautious of anything that asks you to download a plugin or codec. It’s almost always not worth the effort and it’s almost always malware of some sort.