Here’s something new. In North Dakota, USA, pieces of yellow paper were placed on the windshield of parked cars with the following text printed on them:
PARKING VIOLATION This vehicle is in violation of standard parking regulations. To view pictures with information about your parking preferences, go to website ….
The website that was printed tells people they need to download a program called PictureSearchToolbar.exe. This program then downloads malware onto people’s PCs. The malware can change but at the moment it tells people their PC is infected and asks them to download more malware.
This is a new way to trick people into downloading malware.
You can avoid these tricks by being cautious on what you download. The rule of thumb is that you never need to download anything to view a picture or video on the internet, unless you either know what you’re doing or really trust the company giving you this information (e.g. if you’re using Windows you could trust Microsoft since they made the operating system you’re using).
You can also install a good anti-virus package that scans web pages. This needs to be updated daily which generally means you need a paid subscription. It’s a good investment.