Spam Calendar Invites

Question

Spam Calendar Invites

In just the past week, I have started getting spam in my calendar.

Now, I have looked all over the net and most of the previous discussions and how-tos involve preventing calendar items from getting passed from Mail.app to Calendar.app. I do not believe this is happening. I have Mail.app set to not send to Calendar.app. I am not seeing any spam mail in the Inbox of Junk box. It's just coming straight to the Calendar.app.

When my wife sends a calendar event to me, I do not get any sort of email, just the invite in the Inbox of the Calendar.app. So that's how these are coming in. Probably straight from a spammer using a Mac on iCloud.

How do I block these? There doesn't seem to be any way to do so.

Thanks

Andy

MacOS Sierra, Macbook Air Mid 2012, iPhone 6s, iOS 10

Posted on Nov 2, 2016 6:46 AM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

64,708 points

Oct 3, 2017 9:06 AM in response to macgeek17

Hello !

macgeek17

Some articles iCloud: Report junk Calendar invitations

Get help using iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders - Apple Support

if you get a spam iCloud Calendar request

If you get a calendar request that you think might be spam or junk, let us know. Sign in to iCloud.com with your Apple ID and go to the Calendar app. Open the event that you wish to mark as Junk, click Report Junk, then click OK. Automatically delete the event from your Calendar on all your devices signed in with the same Apple ID.

You can also go to the invitation from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac and choose Report Junk > Delete and Report Junk.

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Answer 2

zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Nov 2, 2016 7:41 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Delete it and consider changing your password to something stronger. Also consider enabling either two-step verification or two-factor authentication if haven't done so already.

See this for further help -- If you think your Apple ID has been compromised - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Nov 2, 2016 8:09 AM in response to zinacef

I do not see a way to delete it. Accept. Maybe. Decline. No delete. More info on the does not have a delete button, nor does pressing delete key on keyboard remove it.

Also, I already have two step. It's just someone spamming outgoing invitations to a list of people. Not unauthorized access of my account.

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Answer 4

zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Nov 2, 2016 8:43 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Select 'Decline' -- iCloud: Delete or hide an event

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Answer 5

Nov 2, 2016 8:49 AM in response to zinacef

Yes, but that sends a message back to the sender indicating that I declined it. Now he knows my email is legit and the attacks will continue and increase. I was hoping there was a way to delete it without alerting the sender, such a simple "delete" or "ignore" or better yet, "block."

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my original post.

I know it can be removed. What I want to do is PREVENT my Calendar app from even receiving these items. For example, a check box that says "Receive only events from known contacts" or some such thing.

Seems odd that Apple would leave this wide open back door of annoyance.

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Answer 6

Nov 2, 2016 8:53 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Clearly, a person would not want to "respond" to a spammer. There has to be a way to delete without the response.

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Answer 7

zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Nov 2, 2016 10:38 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

From that link I provided above, you could hide the events versus deleting them.

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Answer 8

Nov 2, 2016 11:51 AM in response to zinacef

Came across this while digging around.

You can tell iCloud not to send Calendar Invites straight to the app but to instead send them to you as email. This will allow you to filter the invites through normal spam/junk filtering in your Mail client.

Here's how:

1) Go to iCloud.com and log in

2) Go to the Calendar

3) Click the little Gear icon in the lower left corner

4) Select "Preference" from the pop up menu.

5) Choose the Advanced Tab across the top of the resulting window

6) At the bottom, under Invitations, choose "Email to ..."

Now all your calendar invites will go to email so you can choose whether or not to send them to Calendar.app

Personally, I'd rather see Apple include some method for dealing with spam in the Calander, like the option I mentioned earlier: Check Box: Ignore invites from people not in my Contacts.

But, this will work for now.

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Answer 9

zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Nov 2, 2016 11:53 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Splendid suggestion! I will bookmark this for future reference.

Let Apple know their services need improvement -- http://www.apple.com/feedback/

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Answer 10

susu3400

Level 1

13 points

Nov 2, 2016 3:42 PM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Dear Andrew,

I fully agree with the suggestions you made and I´m glad you made them, because I´m getting more and more concerned. Still it remains a workaround as it just re-routes the spam to your e-mail. Best help would be as you said if Apple added the option to delete without notifying the sender. Best help until than would be changing the icloud.com-email-address, I guess. Would you agree?

I´m being harressed as well since one or two weeks. As a workaround I created a "junk" calendar to at least hide the invites, but now I keep getting this note everytime I open ical, that´s why I´m getting concerned it could be more than spam:

Translation: "server announces error.

The access to.....in "junk" in account....is prohibited.

Answer of server: "403" to process CalDav....

ignore/try again/use serverversion"

I clicked "ignore" for every invite I´m hiding in "junk", didn´t dare to click "use serverversion" even though I´m being curious.

Can you ease my concern?

Susu

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Answer 11

susu3400

Level 1

13 points

Nov 2, 2016 4:17 PM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

addition to my reply:

I´ve just erased my "junk" calendar with the hidden spam invites and there you have it:

two options: erase + notify

erase without notification !!!

Susu

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Answer 12

zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Nov 2, 2016 4:21 PM in response to susu3400

I just thought of something -- do either of you guys have two-factor verification or two-step authentication on your Apple accounts?

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Answer 13

susu3400

Level 1

13 points

Nov 2, 2016 4:27 PM in response to zinacef

two-factor verification

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Answer 14

Nov 2, 2016 4:30 PM in response to susu3400

Hi Susu,

I think you are right. I personally do not want to acknowledge the spam calendar invite by clicking Accept or Decline... At this point, the only option is to divert the invites to email and delete them before they make it to iCal.

I also noticed an option in the Mail.app settings that stops Mail.app from kicking calendar things to Calendar.app. You might want to make sure that is also disabled.

Mail > Preferences > General > Add invitations to Calendar > Never

Andy

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Answer 15

zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Nov 2, 2016 4:34 PM in response to susu3400

Interesting that that is on and enabled and this is still coming through. Perhaps one of you should alert Apple Support about it in order for them to make a ticket.

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