How do I block spam calendar invitation emails?

In MPC9 reply was correct to safly to stop recieveing such invites

to delete the invite I've done this

Luckily, tech blogs like 9to5Mac were able to find one solution to the spam: creating a new calendar and moving all the unwanted invitations to it, then deleting the calendar.

I found it on

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/25/chinese-spammers-target-apple-icalendar-users-wit h-sketchy-invites-for-black-friday-deals.html

Thanks to both of your for replies, I just have an iPad and iPhone, this entry is linked to my iCloud email which if I'm honest I don't use much, but thought it may be fairly secure linked to apple!!! The entry has put itself into the work diary which I don't use!

I'm concerned about deleting my calendar but I will read your links thank you

HI just to clarify you don't delete the calendar that you actually use. You create a new one andmove the event to that calendar, then delete that calendar. So the only event you lose is the one you don't want. Search the help pages for how to create a new calendar. It's very easy.

It is available on the desktop version 🙂

Sorry ChristopheP, editing, I posted that thinking you were responding to me.

On the desktop you have the option to not include events from apps, and I believe this does the same thing and will send any invites by email instead, which then gives you the option to block sender. Time will tell.

Just to add to the list, I started getting these, too, and to make it worse, even when I "decline" them, they show up on my shared calendar as "declined," and can't be deleted!

Apple, please give us some way to block calendar invites from anyone outside our contact list! This isn't Facebook; it's a work tool!

If you "declined" the event, as I and many others did the first time around, you can "show declined events" in icloud, and then just delete them by selecting and then hitting "delete" key. If they're in a shared calendar, note that you can only delete them if you're the owner of that calendar; declined events will still show up on the shared calendar for other users until the calendar owner deletes them.

This approach, plus the trick of turning off the option to see invites in-app, at least got me back to ground zero and cleared the Ray Ban and Ugg sales off my calendar...

There is one way to at least stop these from magically appearing in your calendar without your say-so. You have to make the invites go your email instead, where you can just ignore them, delete them, set-up rules to deal with them, etc.

To make the spam invitations go to your email, log onto your iCloud account on the web. Open the Calendar app, click the gear-shaped Settings icon in the lower-left corner and choose Preferences. In the Preferences box, click the Advanced tab, and under Invitations, click the button to have all calendar invitations go to your email account instead of your calendar. Click the Save button before you leave the screen.

Credit: NY Times

I too am getting calendar events that have what looks to be chinese characters. I have searched my email and don't see them in the email, so how are they appearing in my calendar. I don't Accept or Decline. How are they appearing as part of my inbox event requests if they aren't in my email. How do I block them when I can't find the source of the invite? I found a post online showing how to make a spam calendar to associate them to and then delete it thus deleting the event. This is a bandaid and I've already received another invite request. Did you figure out where to block them?

For the time being, maybe we can suggest that Apple add an option that would allow the direct entry to calendar only be activated for the contact list members, like they have done for other features (i.e. Do not disturb). I know this isn't a fix, but most calendar invites come from contacts anyway.

I did. The issue still needs to be addressed. Even under the options, it still sends the invite to mail. BTW, the iCloud address this was sent to has never been given out to anyone.

Joseph Zicherman

Sent from my iPhone

The answer from Ferd II is not on point. These invites are coming into iCal directly. There is a listed email address, but of course replies to that address bounce.

There has got to be (or there should be, Apple!) a feature for blocking automatic calendar requests. Once someone gets your email address on some list, these will only increase in number and annoyance, I'm sure.

- Robert

I never use or give out that iCloud email address either and I think that is the case with most people. So the question is, how did this sunglass spammer get hold of all these unpublished iCloud email addresses?

Robert Sette wrote:

There has got to be (or there should be, Apple!) a feature for blocking automatic calendar requests. Once someone gets your email address on some list, these will only increase in number and annoyance, I'm sure.

- Robert

There is, turn off 'In-App' notifications.

This can only be done in the Calendar>Preferences>Advanced section on the iCloud website, after that is done you will get emails notifying you instead of Calendar entries.

Since updating to Sierra, noticed settings in "old" apps like "Mail" didn't work. Had a lot of sorting "Rules" that sent mail to various Mailboxes, added colored banners etc. None of those Rules worked properly after updating to Sierra (Rules that sent mail to specific Mailboxes or Archives actually got changed to send to others!)

Well guess what? Settings also got changed in the "old" Calendar app! I'd created "Home" & "Work" calendars (before iCloud "Family" calendar came along). Both Home & Work were always PRIVATE calendars. Today logged on to Calendars via internet to get rid of spam invites. Happened to click on the Share icon for Home Calendar & it was set to PUBLIC!!! As was Work Calendar!!! (Family was still Private, so changed it to default calendar).

Not only that! When I clicked on Share icon for Home/Work calendars, after DE-selecting Public Calendar, I checked out/clicked on Private Calendar [Sharing] - you can Add Person to share - started typing in my name & it brought up a whole list of "Recents" - including email addresses of spammers I'd blocked in Mail!!!! What the?? (And what exactly does that mean?)

Thanks Apple!!! Whoever wrote your code for the Sierra update must have slipped in a back-door vulnerability (?on purpose?). Now my Private Calendars have been public & spammers have my e-mail address.

Make sure your Calendars are still set to PRIVATE if you updated to Sierra!

Incidentally, deleting spam invites by creating & deleting Spam calendar worked well. Also changed settings for all invites to go to e-mail, hope that's the end of this. Really disappointed with Apple - SO careless of them!

btw, turning off "Events Found in Apps" in Calendar settings on all devices does NOT prevent these Calendar spam events from getting on your Calendar [if any of your Calendars have unknowingly been reset to PUBLIC]. That was 1st thing I tried.

So far so good since resetting Calendars back to PRIVATE/making Family Calendar the default Calendar.

I hate being hacked