I download a lot of zip files for a game I play, beatsaber, from 3rd party websites. It’s just a necessary part of keeping the game interesting. If I just copy the link location of a zip file that I want to download, and paste that location into the url scan of VirusTotal, can I be sure I am not getting a virus? Or, do I have to have downloaded and unzipped the file to detect malware?
Upload the contents, not the zip file.
Also, using cracked/torrented/pirated or other illegal software is one of, if not the, easiest and most common way to get infected, even if they arent outright malicious all such software acts as backdoors to your system due to their P2P nature.