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How can I delete a spam calendar invitation without replying?

OS X 10.9.4, Calendar version 7.0 (1841.1)


I have a spam calendar invitation. I am pretty sure it did not come through email, since I can't find any email message in inbox, junk, trash, or anywhere else, with any content that matches this spam event.


Besides, "Add new invitations to Calendar" has been set to "Never" all along.


How can I get rid of this invitation without sending a reply to the spammer?


One suggestion I read is to move it to a local "on my mac" calendar first. I don't have any such calendar, and can't see a way to create one!

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Aug 26, 2014 11:24 AM

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Posted on Nov 1, 2016 10:03 AM

Agreed!

The option not to notify no longer exists..

However, You can still do it by creating a new calendar, name it 'junk' or something, switch the spam invitation to that calendar (no need to accept or decline), then delete the new calendar; at this point, you will get the option not to notify...


This spam issue is getting very very problematic


i'm getting multiple spam invitations every day from chinese-looking sources (Chinese characters, and email addresses like: wjskdn6g@icloud.com)

The worse part is that i have no idea how they're getting through to the calendar since i do not have email enabled on any device for this iCloud account!!

This is very disheartening because i cannot figure out how these invitations are getting to my calendar!


Also, the big risk, if you deny just one of these invites, is that they will immediately know that your email address is connected to a real person, and that their spam got to you!

This is great news for a spammer, terrible for you!

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Nov 1, 2016 10:03 AM in response to Matt Crawford2

Agreed!

The option not to notify no longer exists..

However, You can still do it by creating a new calendar, name it 'junk' or something, switch the spam invitation to that calendar (no need to accept or decline), then delete the new calendar; at this point, you will get the option not to notify...


This spam issue is getting very very problematic


i'm getting multiple spam invitations every day from chinese-looking sources (Chinese characters, and email addresses like: wjskdn6g@icloud.com)

The worse part is that i have no idea how they're getting through to the calendar since i do not have email enabled on any device for this iCloud account!!

This is very disheartening because i cannot figure out how these invitations are getting to my calendar!


Also, the big risk, if you deny just one of these invites, is that they will immediately know that your email address is connected to a real person, and that their spam got to you!

This is great news for a spammer, terrible for you!

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Nov 2, 2016 5:40 PM in response to zconsulting.net

zconsulting.net wrote:

...You can still do it by creating a new calendar, name it 'junk' or something, switch the spam invitation to that calendar (no need to accept or decline), then delete the new calendar; at this point, you will get the option not to notify...

Thanks for the tip, this is what I did when I got this invitation to partake in a sale on RayBans & Oakleys in order to delete the event without notifying the sender.


User uploaded file


Then I disabled Calendars and Reminders in my iCloud account System Preferences.

User uploaded file


PS - I was also a target of the iMessage Chinese spam hack, where they used my iMessage account to send spam messages to China. Another iCloud security failure. I enabled two-factor authentication after that hack.


I do need some new WAYFARERS though.

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Nov 15, 2016 4:36 PM in response to Matt Crawford2

After much research I found the perfect way to stop all these iCloud calendar invite spams.


Log in to iCloud on the web, open your calendar, and go to ⚙ > Preferences. Under Advanced, you’ll find an option to receive calendar invitations by email instead of straight into your calendar.


Now you can just "Junk" any emails that come in for this and leaves your calendar alone.


This suggestion came from http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/259750

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Nov 28, 2016 3:46 PM in response to Gemmy23

Gemmy23 wrote:


There is no delete key. I only have the option to "accept" "maybe" or "decline". I was told not to do any of those because then the sender gets a notification of how you have replied and then they know it is a working address. Any suggestions?


Someone wrote earlier in this just a few posts back - they were running an earlier Mac OS version. While I don't understand why that might be an OS issue, maybe it is?


* What OS version are you running?
* Or, I should ask first - if you're trying to do this on an iOS device or Mac OS ?

* Are you looking to delete the actual invite, or a newly created 'junk' calendar file?


* When you finally get to the point of deleting the calendar file (not invite) - you either:

+ right click mouse on a blank space of the calendar, will bring up the dialogue box.

Or....

+ Select the newly created junk calendar with one regular click of your mouse (right click) then

simply hit your delete key. Only then with the option appear to delete without notifying.


@Matt Crawford posted the screen shot early on of what you'll see:

User uploaded file




I don't know if the whole process is getting mixed up, or mixed up between iOS and Mac OS? The process for sure is easier done via Mac though. If anyone still isn't clear - this is as easy, visually I think of what it shows via Mac OS with the Calendar app. I hope the screen shots help.

User uploaded file



User uploaded file



User uploaded file





~ finé

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Nov 25, 2016 12:42 PM in response to Matt Crawford2

it would be so easy if

Apple adds again

the useful Contact Buddy list we had in iChat

where only contacts in the user list where able to reach you.

This will solve all the problems we are having with Calendar, Reminder, FaceTime and messages and Photos

from unknown spammer

I sent a feedback about that, please do the same

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Nov 28, 2016 2:41 PM in response to xoAnna

xoAnna wrote:


Heres the link to give Apple feedback that you requested.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/calendar.html

HTH! 🙂


Thanks... but I already knew the link. I didn't need it. I just didn't have it handy.


I just thought it would be handy if someone referenced within the string so it was easily available. Thanks again though. :-)

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Aug 26, 2014 3:00 PM in response to Matt Crawford2

I'm running Mavericks too (10.9.4). I'm not sure why it isn't giving you the option not to notify. Also, as you discovered, with Mavericks I don't think it's possible any longer to have both an On My Mac and an iCloud calendar. You can create one or the other, but not both. But even if the calendar was local rather than iCloud, I would still think the notification would happen since it doesn't care where the calendar is stored. I guess I'm not sure what you can do except delete and notify, or leave the event on your calendar.

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Aug 18, 2015 1:09 PM in response to randers4

Randers, I've never seen the dialog box that you show when deleting unwanted invites from iCal -- I only see the options that Matt shows. I've been running everything from OS X 10.1 through 10.10. I too only get the option of "Cancel" or "Decline", the latter sends a message to the inviter whether or not you want it. It used to be that I could take my computer offline, delete the message and take it online again. But in later OS versions, the email gets sent as soon as you take the machine online again -- very annoying.


I wonder if the reason for the discrepancy has to do with the type of email server that sent the invite. iCalReplyChecker (www.nhoj.co.uk/icalreplychecker/) purports to add a dialog that gives control over whether the email gets sent automatically, but not if the invite was sent by Exchange or CalDav servers. (It is also out of date at this point, so I haven't tried it.)

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Nov 1, 2016 8:10 PM in response to zconsulting.net

Has there been any update from Apple on this? I am still having a problem with spam invites in Calendar and it seems to have been going on for several years now. Usually Apple is quicker about addressing issues like this. How can we reach out to Apple to get feedback on this?

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Nov 4, 2016 2:01 AM in response to Matt Crawford2

I've also received a Chinese spam calendar event yesterday (which is set to repeat every day, with no end date!). The event was in my "iCloud Family" account, and therefore couldn't be moved.


Some tips - both failed and successful:


✖ I un-hid the Library folder, found the message and deleted it; that didn't work; I deleted the cache; that didn't work. I tried multiple times (with the Calendar closed, and even wifi turned off). Still no success. It kept re-appearing.


😕 Then on my phone in "Settings" I turned off "calendars" for my iCloud account, and it offered to delete all events on my phone associated with that calendar, which I accepted. I then re-enabled the calendar, and the event had gone from my iPhone ... but it still showed in my Calendar, and oddly, also in iCloud.


✅ What finally worked for me was to:

- print out the calendar for the next 2 weeks (where I added stuff yesterday)

- go into iCloud through a web browser, go into "Settings", and "restore my calendar from an iCloud back-up" to what it was before yesterday's spam

- add back in the odd event that had been lost in the process


✅ While in iCloud I also went into the "Advanced" settings of the Calendar, and selected the option to have invitations sent by email, and not automatically added to my calendar.


✅ As a preventive measure, also I turned off "auto add events" in the Calendar preferences, on both the Mac and iPhone


Hope that helps ... until Apple fixes this

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Nov 15, 2016 12:34 PM in response to Matt Crawford2

There is a workaround for this:

- Create a new iCloud calendar (e.g. "spam dummy")

- Move the event of the spam invitation to this dummy calendar

- Delete the dummy calendar. iCloud will now ask you whether you want to delete the events in the calendar with or without a notification to the sender (as it did until some time ago with individual invitations as well).


Nonetheless this should be addressed by Apple as currently there is no way to prevent such spam invitations. Even if an invitation is not spam I would like to be able to not send a notification that I deleted it.

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Nov 16, 2016 7:07 AM in response to Sam's__dad

Despite my post from 2 weeks ago, yesterday I had the Ray Ban ad pop up in my Calendar. I repeated the steps above, and cleared it quickly.


I was puzzled as to why it had still added automatically, and then found one more step I'd missed ...


✅ Go into Mac Mail > Preferences > General > Add invitations to Calendar ... needs to be set to "never"


Hopefully that's the last step ;-)

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How can I delete a spam calendar invitation without replying?

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