Calendar Spam is a Problem (How to Fix)
John Rampton
Super Power = Online Growth | $1,000,000,000+ in Online Sales | Want to build your unicorn with me?
First, there was email spam. Then came text spam. Now, as more people use digital calendars on their computers and?calendar apps?on their mobile devices, many people get digital calendar spam. That means more clutter in our in-box from people we don’t know. Calendar invite spam has to stop.
A New Frontier For Spamming
Spammers are always looking for that way in to get their messages or links in front of more people. Now, they’ve found that they can take advantage of Google’s convenient email and calendar integration feature to inundate more people with their junk. Spammers previously went after Apple to?exploit a similar calendar invite feature?a few years ago.
Created as a way to help Google Calendar users save time with scheduling and meeting invites, the?Google Calendar invite?feature lets you?automatically add meeting invites to your calendar.?Although the meeting invite only appears as an outline until the recipient selects “yes” or “no,” the meeting invite still appears on a user’s Google Calendar.??
The Calendar Invite Spam Threat is Real
Spammers have upped their game with this ploy. When a user clicks on the event description within that meeting invite, it reveals a spam message, which can have malicious links embedded in it. Spammers want users to click on those links, of course, because it can lead to the potential of capturing personal information. If a user does click on the link, it tells the spammer that it’s an active email account. From there, the spammer can inundate the user with unsolicited emails.
Except for the spammers, no one, including Google, is pleased with this new scheme. Google has reiterated its privacy policy and focus on protecting its users. Plus, the company has provided guidance on?how to address calendar invite spam.
How to Remove Calendar Spam from Your Google Calendar
There are some quick ways to shut down calendar spam notifications from within your Google Calendar.
This process should remove all calendar invite spam from your?Google Calendar?so you can stop wasting your time opening invites that aren’t real and minimize your risk for becoming a victim of something more malicious.
How to Remove Calendar Spam from Your Microsoft Calendar
To remove calendar invite spam from your Microsoft Calendar (Outlook), you need to remove the automatic meeting request process. Doing so will stop the meeting from showing up on your Microsoft Calendar in the first place. From there, you can delete the spam email in your inbox or opt to mark it as spam.
Although it’s a secure method for addressing calendar invite spam, it also means that none of your meeting requests, including all the legitimate meeting requests, will be processed until you click “accept” in the initial email invitation. This could mean you miss a meeting request, but it also cuts out the spam. Here’s how to remove the spam:
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How to Remove Calendar Spam from Your Apple Calendar
Although you can’t currently report and remove calendar spam on?iPhone, iPad, and Mac?except to?just delete, Apple does have a process for handling this spam via?iCloud.com, which may reduce it across all your Apple devices. Here’s how to address calendar invite spam from iCloud calendar:
When you report calendar spam through iCloud, it will also be removed from all Apple devices that are synced with your iCloud account.
How to Remove Calendar Spam from Your Yahoo Calendar
You may also receive calendar spam in your Yahoo Calendar. Yahoo has a very basic process for dealing with these spam Calendar invitations. Yahoo recommends treating the calendar invite spam like normal spam email by clicking the ‘spam’ button.
From there, you have to delete the individual event from your calendar separately. Choose the option that says “Delete” when clicking on the event. Don’t respond to the invitation itself or click any of the notifications within the invitation like where it says “Decline” because this will send a response to the spammer, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid.?Then, you can also?report calendar invite spam to Yahoo.
Remain Vigilant
Spammers will continue to “innovate” their exploitive tactics by studying new software and app features to get what they want. To slow the pace of spammers’ efforts and perhaps even discourage them, it’s important that we all remain vigilant when it comes to understanding and blocking their schemes.
Here’s to a spam free calendar in the coming years!
John Rampton?is an entrepreneur, investor, and startup enthusiast. He is a founder of the calendar productivity tool?Calendar. You can sign up for early access to Calendar?here!?
This article originally appeared on Calendar.?
Trainer and Documentation Specialist at Iron Bow Technologies
1 年Doesn't work - tried this and I don't have the option described here - and the calendar spam seems unstoppable and is getting worse. It's nearly rendered my calendar unusable. Microsoft needs to DO SOMETHING to protect users from this scourge of internet dirtbags ruining the calendar in Outlook.
Sadly if you use hotmail / outlook.com rather than the Outlook client there's no access to this sitting and I have yet to find a way to kill it.
SAP S/4 Hana Developer | Certified SAP Backend Cloud Developer, SAP BTP, SAP CPI | Full Stack Web Development, Machine Learning | AI Enthusiast, Self-Learner | Creating Efficient Solutions | BSME
1 年does not work