After the heat on the Black Friday weekend, many Apple iPhone users are reporting regarding random calendar invites. These strange calendar invites are for deals and sales from users with obviously real names like "kcmgweqeq," "qcjfu" and "nfbtz." Obviously, with this kind of names and invites, these are spam!
How To Deal With Calendar Spam?
Your iCloud calendar app is set up to automatically notify you (via in-app notification) of calendar invites, and, unfortunately, the spammers have figured this out. According to CNET, at the moment, there's no real solution -- you can't mark the invites as spam, nor can you prevent invites from people who are not in your contacts list. You can decline the invites, but any response -- even a negative one -- sends an email back to the spammer and lets them know that your account is active, which means you'll probably end up on a "Definitely Do Send" list somewhere.
However, there are a couple of workarounds, but they're not perfect. Here are your options:
- Prevent push notifications
- Make a secret spam calendar and then delete it
- Stop syncing
Apple Said iPhone Users Should Ignore Calendar Spam
"We are sorry that some of our users are receiving spam calendar invitations,” a spokesperson told Fortune when they addressed the issue. “We are actively working to address this issue by identifying and blocking suspicious senders and spam in the invites being sent,” Apple spokesman added.
WCVB said that Apple hasn’t remedied the issue yet, so iPhone users should know what they can just to prevent the calendar spams. Always remember that spammers thrive on accessing your personal or financial data. Be smart. Don’t give out credit or debit card information unless it’s you’re using a legit site. You can also block the email addresses when they appear in your text messages by selecting "block this caller."
If you received similar spam promotions on your iPhone, a word of warning: neither “accept,” nor “decline,” nor reply with a namby-pamby “maybe.” Reacting will only alert the senders that you maintain an active account, opening you to future unwanted solicitations. Instead, disregard them.
