A Google Calendar spam issue that has been plaguing users for the last few months is getting fixed, Google on the app鈥檚 official help page.
鈥淲e鈥檙e aware of the spam occurring in Calendar and are working diligently to resolve this issue,鈥� the company wrote, but did not specify a time frame for the fix.
Google users have reported by unsolicited invitations in their calendar with posts like, 鈥淵our iPhoneX is ready for Pickup,鈥� and a dodgy URL link that lures unsuspecting users to a phishing website. Phishing is when someone is tricked into providing sensitive data and personal information on a website that looks official, such as a bank, but is in fact not legitimate.
In this case, spammers or bots get into a user鈥檚 personal calendar by taking advantage of a default setting that accepts unsolicited calendar invitations from anyone, security expert Brian Kreb said , noting that Apple and Microsoft calendars are vulnerable too.
The offending Google Calendar events and removed by going to the calendar on a desktop, double clicking on the event to open it, clicking on 鈥淢ore Actions鈥� at the top of the page, and hitting 鈥淩eport as Spam.鈥� When one event is reported, all events from the same organizer will be removed as well. Be sure to not reply to the event invitations and do not click on the URL.
Until Google finds a fix that filters out spammers, there is a workaround to from showing up on the calendar. Disabling the feature is not ideal, but useful if the spam events are getting out of hand.
Go to the calendar via a desktop, and click 鈥淪ettings menu鈥� -- this is the gear wheel on the top right -- then click 鈥淪ettings.鈥� Under the 鈥淕eneral鈥� tab, select 鈥淓vent settings.鈥� Under 鈥淎utomatically add invitations,鈥� select 鈥淣o, only show invitations to which I have responded.鈥� Kreb also for Outlook and Apple calendar users.
