6 ms·

I've received a bunch of calendar invites for "Free i PhoneXs from AppleStore" with a malicious link. Seems like this is now being used for phishing attacks. I

I've received a bunch of calendar invites for "Free i PhoneXs from AppleStore" with a malicious link. Seems like this is now being used for phishing attacks. I believe API abuse can be reported -- https://support.google.com/code/contact/cloud_platform_report https://support.google.com/code/contact/cloud_platform_repor...

chli 7y ago
Same happened to me last night, I reviewed all my access rights on security.google.com, couldn't find anything wrong. Reviewed my calendar access rights, couldn't find anything wrong. Glad to have an explanation for this phenomenon.
- andrejus 7y ago
  Didn't expect a HN post about it so quick (fairly new here still), but yup it seems entirely spam that completely bypasses normal email filters.
  - kop316 7y ago
    I didn't either. What surprised me more is the post is from 2017.
draxofavalon 7y ago
Same thing here, exact same ad, I reported it as spam.
kburman 7y ago
Invites are set up as a recurring event, so make sure to delete all the events. You can do a search to find any leftover.
- ChrisSD 7y ago
  If you go to the website you can mark it as spam. Then all occurrences of events from the same sender will be deleted. However there's nothing to stop spammers from sending multiple separate events from "different" senders...
wastedhours 7y ago
I've been getting a lot more recently - seemingly being added from Gmail spam (either that or I'm getting directly injected calendar spam and the same as emails coming through). I don't want to turn off syncing as actual bookings being automatically added are useful.
- croon 7y ago
  I'm wondering about this as well as I've been seeing it for at least a year. Are the events added before the email is sorted into spam? If so I wish the calender hook didn't trigger until the email reaches my "real" inbox. But I have no insight into the gmail lifecycle.
ZoomStop 7y ago
Was having the same problem. Fixed it by disabling the adding events from Gmail automatically according to the Google instructions. I would rather choose what hits my calendar anyway. https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/6084018 https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/6084018
- magashna 7y ago
  Should be opt-in if someone can just send crap to my calendar maliciously.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  I wish you could whitelist instead of just having a black or white option. My SO and parents I can trust to inject events (keeping track of stuff they've planned but I forgot is 90% of my use of Google Calendar honestly) but now that spammers have discovered Calendar as another place to spam/phish it's less hands off.
- KingMachiavelli 7y ago
  I'm getting the same spam/events. What's really weird is I'm pretty sure all of these emails are getting sent to spam but gmail/gcal is still adding the events to the calendar.
- joshi4 7y ago
  If people prefer a more visual guide I've created one here: https://flowshare.io/flow/how-to-block-spam-invitations-from-your-google-calendar https://flowshare.io/flow/how-to-block-spam-invitations-from...
kop316 7y ago
I can confirm it's being actively exploited this morning (I had a few folks I know complain about it). I think I should point out that the article was written in 2017 (!!!), and Google responded that this is a "feature". Thank you to OP!
macNchz 7y ago
I just got like 10 of these iPhone ones overnight.
jolesf 7y ago
Got the same thing just yesterday.
tabs_masterrace 7y ago
Got some too. What's super weird though, these calendar invites appear to have been sent from my iCloud email address to my gmail address, and also appear in the sent folder of my @me.com address: https://i.imgur.com/tz2TUh5.png https://i.imgur.com/tz2TUh5.png Anyone else can check in your gmail spam folder if you have those emails too and where they came from?
- plttn 7y ago
  In that case, I'm going to hazard a guess that your iCloud email address was actually compromised, and is being used to send it to every address in your contacts.
patch_collector 7y ago
I'd never received one of these until this morning, at about the same time I read this article. Now I just received the same one as you :P
- monkeydust 7y ago
  Same here! Killed my morning in to work time on train sorting this out.
faramarz 7y ago
I had to go into the Gmail UI to report the event as spam and seems to have fixed the issue for me. in the process disabled the automatic fetching of events from my emails which was causing double bookings; ahh!

chli 7y ago

Same happened to me last night, I reviewed all my access rights on security.google.com, couldn't find anything wrong. Reviewed my calendar access rights, couldn't find anything wrong. Glad to have an explanation for this phenomenon.

andrejus 7y ago
Didn't expect a HN post about it so quick (fairly new here still), but yup it seems entirely spam that completely bypasses normal email filters.
- kop316 7y ago
  I didn't either. What surprised me more is the post is from 2017.

draxofavalon 7y ago

Same thing here, exact same ad, I reported it as spam.

kburman 7y ago

Invites are set up as a recurring event, so make sure to delete all the events. You can do a search to find any leftover.

ChrisSD 7y ago
If you go to the website you can mark it as spam. Then all occurrences of events from the same sender will be deleted. However there's nothing to stop spammers from sending multiple separate events from "different" senders...

wastedhours 7y ago

I've been getting a lot more recently - seemingly being added from Gmail spam (either that or I'm getting directly injected calendar spam and the same as emails coming through). I don't want to turn off syncing as actual bookings being automatically added are useful.

croon 7y ago
I'm wondering about this as well as I've been seeing it for at least a year. Are the events added before the email is sorted into spam? If so I wish the calender hook didn't trigger until the email reaches my "real" inbox. But I have no insight into the gmail lifecycle.

ZoomStop 7y ago

Was having the same problem. Fixed it by disabling the adding events from Gmail automatically according to the Google instructions. I would rather choose what hits my calendar anyway. https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/6084018 https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/6084018

magashna 7y ago
Should be opt-in if someone can just send crap to my calendar maliciously.
rtkwe 7y ago
I wish you could whitelist instead of just having a black or white option. My SO and parents I can trust to inject events (keeping track of stuff they've planned but I forgot is 90% of my use of Google Calendar honestly) but now that spammers have discovered Calendar as another place to spam/phish it's less hands off.
KingMachiavelli 7y ago
I'm getting the same spam/events. What's really weird is I'm pretty sure all of these emails are getting sent to spam but gmail/gcal is still adding the events to the calendar.
joshi4 7y ago
If people prefer a more visual guide I've created one here: https://flowshare.io/flow/how-to-block-spam-invitations-from-your-google-calendar https://flowshare.io/flow/how-to-block-spam-invitations-from...

kop316 7y ago

I can confirm it's being actively exploited this morning (I had a few folks I know complain about it). I think I should point out that the article was written in 2017 (!!!), and Google responded that this is a "feature". Thank you to OP!

macNchz 7y ago

I just got like 10 of these iPhone ones overnight.

jolesf 7y ago

Got the same thing just yesterday.

tabs_masterrace 7y ago

Got some too. What's super weird though, these calendar invites appear to have been sent from my iCloud email address to my gmail address, and also appear in the sent folder of my @me.com address: https://i.imgur.com/tz2TUh5.png https://i.imgur.com/tz2TUh5.png Anyone else can check in your gmail spam folder if you have those emails too and where they came from?

plttn 7y ago
In that case, I'm going to hazard a guess that your iCloud email address was actually compromised, and is being used to send it to every address in your contacts.

patch_collector 7y ago

I'd never received one of these until this morning, at about the same time I read this article. Now I just received the same one as you :P

monkeydust 7y ago
Same here! Killed my morning in to work time on train sorting this out.

faramarz 7y ago

I had to go into the Gmail UI to report the event as spam and seems to have fixed the issue for me. in the process disabled the automatic fetching of events from my emails which was causing double bookings; ahh!