More Bad News from the CBO

WASHINGTON–According to an advisory sent Tuesday, a number of
people have reported receiving an email proported to have been sent
from the Congressional Budget Office. But instead of bad news about
government costs, this time it’s about the email itself, which
actually “is a malicious message with a PDF attachment containing a
dangerous virus,” the advisory said.

The email appears to come from outside the U.S., and no one is
sure how many people received the message or how the address list
was obtained. As a precaution, the CBO sent the advisory to all
subscribers of the CBO list server.

From the notification:

If you received an email message from an unknown gmail account
with a subject of: MONTHLY BUDGET REVIEW_A Congressional Budget
Office Analysis and a body that contains the following text:

“Based on the Monthly Treasury Statement for February and the
Daily Treasury Statements for March April 4, 2008 Halfway through
fiscal year 2008, the federal government has incurred a deficit of
$310 billion, CBO estimates,$51 billion more than the shortfall
incurred during the same period in 2007. Outlays have risen by 5
percent in the first half of the year, whereas revenues have grown
by about 2 percent. Detail for the attached document.”

Please delete it. Also, do not click on the PDF attachment at
the bottom of the message. It contains a dangerous virus that could
damage your computer.

If you have received this message, please notify [email protected] to help the CBO determine
how the address list was obtained. This address will be active
until June 1st.