14 DAY TRIAL // Similar to all other major events, the US government shutdown is leveraged by spammers and scammers. Symantec has come across a series of emails advertising great deals on cars.
The emails are entitled something like “Half-off our autos for each day the US Govt is shut down” or “Get half off MSRP on new autos for each day of govt. shut down” and they read something like this:
“A government shut-down doesn’t have to be a bad thing. For each day the US government is shut-down, we are offering HALF OFF on a brand new 2013 vehicles. This has never been done before in US history.”
According to Symantec experts, the links from the emails point to a website that shows a bogus offer.
Users are advised to beware of any suspicious emails regarding the government shutdown, especially if they present “breaking news” or hard-to-turn-down deals. Cybercriminals might decide to launch malware distribution campaigns that leverage the topic.