How to Stop Spam Calendar Events

Calendar Spam – How to Stop and Remove Spam Calendar Appointments – Android and iPhone

Hackers are using a digital calendar vulnerabilities that allows them to add a spam events to victim’s calendars. The hacker only needs to know the Gmail account attached to a Google calendar to get an event added on it. The issue is that the default security settings on Google Calendar automatically allows any emailed event invitation to be added to a calendar when the invitation is sent through Gmail. The event is added even if the recipient does not respond. If a user selects No they won’t see an event on their calendar. However, if you share your calendar with others, they’ll be able to see all the spam events even if you haven’t responded.

Calendar spam happens because popular calendar apps like Google calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and even Apple Calendar can automatically add email invitations to user’s calendars. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all reporting incidents of calendar spam.

Spam events may be something as obviously sketchy as how to pick up that cool million dollars you supposedly just won. A spammy invitation might also direct victims to a website that phishes for login credentials. The event invitation recipient will also receive an email notification about the event entry being added to the calendar. This allows a hacker to send absolutely anything as an invitation.

A Google post on the calendar spam issue stated, “We’re aware of the spam occurring in Calendar and are working diligently to resolve this issue.”

Until an update is made to Google Calendar, users will need to make some a few settings changes to prevent spammers from adding information to otherwise private calendars. To stop this, users need to shut off that ability in each app.

How do I Stop Spam on my Google Calendar?

For now, when anyone sends a calendar event invitation to a Google calendar user’s Gmail address, the event is automatically added to the receiver’s calendar by default unless the recipient has changed those settings. To stop Google Calendar from automatically adding any invitation sent via Gmail, the default event settings option much be set to “No, only show invitations to which I have responded.” This way a calendar won’t show random invitations sent by someone who knows the Gmail address attached to your calendar. Defauting to no will also stop anyone you share a calendar with from seeing your declined or spam invitations too.

How to Stop Gmail from Adding Events – Google Calendar Web Calendar

1. Sign into Google Calendar
2. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner
3. Choose Settings
4. Under the Event Settings section
5. Choose No, only show invitations to which I have responded

Finally, if you have declined spam invitations and don’t want to see the crossed-out calendar entries, mark each one as spam to make them go away. To remove them in bulk, make the following setting change.

1. Sign into Google Calendar
2. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner
3. Choose View options
4. Under the Event Settings section
5. Uncheck “Show declined events”

How to Stop Gmail From Adding Events – Google Calendar Web App

You will also have to stop the addition of events that are emailed to your Gmail account that is attached to the calendar.

1. Sign into Google Calendar
2. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner
3. Choose Settings
4. Scroll down to Events from Gmail section
5. Uncheck Automatically add events from Gmail to my calendar

Note: With this set to off, then your Google calendar will only show invitations to which you have responded to. Google calendar users should never respond to an invitation, as that could result in the spam message remaining as a crossed-out event on your calendar. Report the invitation as spam.

How to Gmail from Adding Events to Google Calendar – Google Calendar App

1. Sign into Google Calendar
2. Tap the hamburger menu in the upper left corner of the app
3. Scroll down and tap the gear icon at the bottom of the menu
4. Choose Settings
5. Tap Events from Gmail
6. Toggle Events from Gmail to Off

How to Prevent iPhone or iPad from Adding Events from email to Calendar

1. Open Settings app on your iPhone/iPad
2. Scroll down and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars
3. Scroll down to the CALENDARS section
4. Toggle Events Found in Mail to off