CBO News Advisory: Malicious Email Alert
May 6, 2008

A number of people have reported receiving an email message that purports to have been sent from the Congressional Budget Office. The email actually is a malicious message with a PDF attachment containing a dangerous virus. It appears to come from outside the U.S. We are not sure how many people received the message or how the address list was obtained. As a precaution, the Congressional Budget Office is sending this notification to all subscribers of the CBO list server.

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 DID receive that message, please notify alert@cbo.gov to help us determine how the address list was obtained. This address will be active until June 1.

We apologize for any inconvenience.