Unsolicited Calendar Invitations

An increasing email threat includes scammy calendar invitations from unknown senders.  Sometimes these will have subject lines that make you think you need to meet with Microsoft to confirm payment or renew your email services. If you are using Outlook, consider changing your calendar settings to not add events automatically to your calendar.

Outlook on the Web (if available to your domain):

• Go to Settings (gear icon) → View all Outlook settings
• Navigate to Calendar → Events from email
• Set “Automatically add events from email” to “Don’t automatically add events to my calendar”.

Outlook Desktop App:

• Go to File → Options → Calendar
• Uncheck:
• “Automatically accept meeting requests and remove canceled meetings”
• “Automatically process meeting requests and responses”

You can also report these as spam in Outlook, and block the sender.

If you are receiving these types of calendar invites to your Gmail or Google Workspace account, here are some privacy and security settings to consider:

• Change your event settings:
  • Go to Google Calendar settings and navigate to “Event settings”.
  • Under “Automatically add invitations,” select “No, only show invitations to which I have responded”.
  • You can also find this setting in the Calendar app by going to the Menu, Settings, and then “Adding invitations” and selecting “Only if the sender is known”.
• Never click on suspicious links:
  • Phishing links are often embedded in these invites and can lead to fake websites that steal your credentials or download malware.
  • Be cautious of links related to invoices, payments, or cryptocurrency, as these are common themes in these scams.
• Report and block spam:
  • If you receive a suspicious invite, click the three dots (More actions) within the event details.
  • Select “Report as spam” to report the event to Google and block future invitations from that sender.
• Verify the sender and domain:
  • Even if a sender’s name looks familiar, always check the email address and domain carefully. Scammers use subtle variations, like outIook.com (with a capital “i”) instead of outlook.com, to trick you
• Trust your instincts:
  • If something seems off about an invite, it probably is. Don’t feel pressured to click or act on any invite that seems suspicious. 

When you receive unsolicited calendar invites, delete them from your email instead of responding with the Decline option. Avoid clicking links in calendar invites from unknown senders. Don’t even click the decline – when you decline, this sends additional communication to the scammer.