Calendar Events Spam: no apparent way to block it?

[MBP17•David]

This morning I got an alert on my iPhone about new event for the next five days or so - some $19.99 Oakley sunglasses rubbish.

There was no email in Junk folder, or anywhere else, and in Calendar (single iCloud account) on my MBP, running macOS Sierra 10.12.1, the only options were the usual "Accept", "Maybe" and "Decline"

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Went through all the settings I can think of, and didn't find a way to block event invitations from anyone not in my Contacts.

Surely, something like in Viber, et al - "Block and Report Spam" should be available as an option?

 

[harryb2448]

David scammers are a pest. Not familiar with iPhone but i there a setting similar to the 'Junk' icon in Mail, next to the Garbage icon? Clicking on that removes to the Junk folder and generally it sends that stuff straight there again.

 

[ferrarr]

Also look in Mac Mail > Preferences, select the General tab and look for "Add invitations to Calendar", change the drop down to "Never".

 

[bobtomay]

The same one in my calendar showed up yesterday on my MBA - it is not in my email.

Can't delete it or cut it without sending notification to the sender letting them know whatever they're doing works.

Add invitations to Calendar is already set to Never - this did not come from an email.

The only place this exists is in the iCloud calendar.

 

[ferrarr]

Maybe, you both allowed a site to push "notifications" to you through Safari? That's the only thing I can think of.

Also, see this, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7611786?start=0&tstart=0

 

[MBP17•David]

David scammers are a pest. Not familiar with iPhone but i there a setting similar to the 'Junk' icon in Mail, next to the Garbage icon? Clicking on that removes to the Junk folder and generally it sends that stuff straight there again.

Sure, but it didn't come through email. Thieving little buggers found a new way to annoy, and also to get confirmation the target is live.

The same one in my calendar showed up yesterday on my MBA - it is not in my email.

Can't delete it or cut it without sending notification to the sender letting them know whatever they're doing works.

Add invitations to Calendar is already set to Never - this did not come from an email.

The only place this exists is in the iCloud calendar.

Yup, exactly the same situation here: Invitations in Mail were always set to Never, the spam invite didn't show up anywhere else (i.e. Mail), and there's no way to even ignore the invite - forcing me to confirm I'm here ... Most annoying.

Still, they must have an email to be able to send an invitation via iCal, so I have now killed the email I used with eBay and PayPal for the last three years, and set a new one (having eight domains helps - it was ebay@... , now it's ebay-paypal@... ) Will see how long before this one gets exposed.

Apple should really get on with blocking this, before we all get deluged with this [new] sort of nuisance.

 

[bobtomay]

Nope - new way of spamming someone has apparently been figured out just in the last month or so. Calendar events are allowed to be sent from within the calendar app (don't ask me, I don't know how to do it) directly to other iCloud users calendar without an email.

Here is how to prevent this from happening in the future - https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/how-to-stop-icloud-calendar-spam/
This does not eliminate the existing spam. This one forces all calendar invites to go to email first, where you can just delete them without any notification being sent.

The first way to eliminate it that I've found is to delete the calendar it's being sent to - not going to be appropriate for anyone that actually uses the calendar.
The 2nd method with a pictorial on deleting if from your iDevice - How to Fight iCloud Calendar Spam (Update)
Have not found a way to make this one work on a Mac yet.

Apparently the spammers are also using Photo sharing somehow based on what I've found.

 

[bobtomay]

The 9to5Mac article is best one I've found describing it thus far - https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/09/icloud-photo-sharing-and-calendar-spam/

These are "in app" invites. The 1wayswim link above shows how to stop them in the calendar app, haven't seen one on how to stop them in the Photos app.

 

[MBP17•David]

Thanks for that, bobtomay Changed the setting now, but the decline was already sent this morning ...

How complicated is it to change the iCloud email, if at all possible (I mean the one @me.com and @icloud.com)? I don't use these for anything, wonder how it got exposed?

 

[bobtomay]

I actually had 2 of those calendar invites in mine - had another one about 2 weeks ago, never seen because I don't use the calendar.

Based on looking at the details, along with email addys they have likely gotten from who knows where (at least 4-5 sites that have one of my email addresses have been hacked, including Sony earlier last year), they're probably using a random generator for many more.

For those of us with the old @mac.com or @me.com AppleIDs, it cannot be changed. The username can be changed by those whose AppleID was set up with some other 3rd party email address.
An iCloud account is automatically set up for every AppleID created and uses the AppleID as it's login.

However, (while I don't recommend this except in specific cases) you can set up a separate AppleID to be used with iCloud rather than using your primary AppleID.
Just remember, all of your purchases belong to the original AppleID "forever" and cannot be moved to a new AppleID. Continue using it for purchases and then use the 2nd AppleID only for iCloud.

 

[MBP17•David]

In my case, I have two separate AppleIDs for US and UK iTunes, for which I use my own emails/domains, so all my purchases are linked to either one of these.
The @me.com is only used for iCloud to sync iOS and MBP ... I think I'll stick with this arrangement

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for the thread guys. This one definitely goes into the tips for Sunday's Video Chat.

 

[chscag]

In addition to what Tom advised....

Spammers are now using "notifications" to push spam to you. These little notify banners will appear out of nowhere reminding you to "buy" something. I received another one this morning about a "Black Friday" sale. Anyway, check out the link Bob provided in post #3.

 

[IWT]

Just for info and to give credit where it's due:

I followed botomay's excellent links on my iMac and confirm that both actions work.

The first was to sign in to iCloud > Calendars > Preferences > Advanced > Invitations > select Email.

The second, and here, do it on your Mac if you have one and it will be carried over to your iDevices:

Open Calendar >File New Calendar > name it Spam > Back to your preferred Calendar(s) > Right Click on Spam Invitation > From drop down > Calendar > this opens up a list of all your Calendars > Choose Spam. (Now do this for all your dodgy invitations).

Now from the main Calendar window, click on Calendars to see them all > Right Click on Spam Calendar > Delete

All gone; on iMac and all iDevices assuming there are synced via iCloud.

Grateful thanks to bobtomay.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

When creating the new calendar, are you creating it "on my Mac", or is it part of "iCloud"?

 

[IWT]

Part of iCloud, Bob; as that's how I keep all my stuff synced. And that's why, I presume, the deletions occurred on my iMac & my iDevices.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

OK, thanks Ian.

 

[bobtomay]

I can also now verify the method described in the 1wayswim article does work - it sends them to your email instead of the calendar where you can safely delete them.