iCloud Users Continue to Be Plagued by Calendar Spam

[MacRumors]

Despite previous attempts to put the situation at rest, some iCloud users continue to experience spam calendar invitations, causing their calendars to be filled with random events.

The situation received widespread coverage in 2016, where Apple said that it was "actively working to address this issue" by "identifying and blocking suspicious senders." Victims are targeted in various ways. The most common method is by receiving a normal iCloud calendar invitation through their calendar app.

Interacting with the invitation, including declining, accepting, or choosing "Maybe," lets the spammer know that the email is valid, so it can continue to be targeted.

Other users are targeted through web pop-ups on potentially malicious or adult websites. Apple has not publicly commented on what specific measures it has taken to solve the issue, but through a video posted by Apple Support, that has so far garnered more than 97,000 views, it has a solution.

The video advises that users, logically, unsubscribe from these spam calendars. The video doesn't offer any insight into what proactive measures users can take to not receive the invitations in the first place.

One measure that some users have found to be helpful is to redirect calendar invitations to their email, rather than an in-app calendar invitation. By redirecting invitations to their email, users can better manage and delete calendar invitations. For more detailed instructions, make sure to check out our how to.

Article Link: iCloud Users Continue to Be Plagued by Calendar Spam

 

[max2]

This is news to me.

 

[nvmls]

Privacy. Thats Calendar.

 

[HiVolt]

Odd, never happened to me. Maybe by default this is off?

 

[fel10]

Had one last week. It’s easy to delete it but it still annoying.

 

[FSMBP]

I've found Apple's mail/calendar to be weak with iCloud. Rules in mail aren't robust at all and calendar control is too simplified.

Hope they do a 'traditional Apple update' to mail/calednar by keeping it simple but also allowing power-users to dig into it.

 

[bounty1097]

It happened to me as well. I visited an anime streaming site and one of the ads in that site installed spam calendar. I tried to remove it, but it wasn't obvious. google search saved me

 

[Cndnmax]

You have to approve it for it to be added to your calendar. Stop clicking OK without reading the pop up window and you’ll be fine lol.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Craig is not happy about this one.

 

[pgiguere1]

Part of the issue is that some users tend to click "OK" to popups without reading them, which is what makes them subscribed to spam calendars in the first place.

Apple could make this less likely simply by respecting their own Human Interface Guidelines.

This is what the modal looks like.

"Cancel" button should be on the left, and "OK" button should be a verb like "Subscribe".

From Apple's HIG:

• "Cancel buttons should always be on the left."
• "To the extent possible, use verbs and verb phrases that relate directly to the alert title and message—for example, View All, Reply, or Ignore. Use OK for simple acceptance."

 

[jonnyb098]

You have to approve it for it to be added to your calendar. Stop clicking OK without reading the pop up window and you’ll be fine lol.

Exactly, stay off the sketchy sites might help too.

 

[Runs For Fun]

Part of the issue is that some users tend to click "OK" to popups without reading them, which is what makes them subscribed to spam calendars in the first place.

Apple could make this less likely simply by respecting their own Human Interface Guidelines.

This is what the modal looks like.

"Cancel" button should be on the left, and "OK" button should be a verb like "Subscribe".

From Apple's HIG:

• "Cancel buttons should always be on the left."
• "To the extent possible, use verbs and verb phrases that relate directly to the alert title and message—for example, View All, Reply, or Ignore. Use OK for simple acceptance."

This seems like it might purposely be an exception. With most people being used to taping OK on the right, and the ability for this to be abused, this would seem to cause someone to pause and look at what they're doing and maybe even accidentally taping Cancel.

 

[Macintosh IIvx]

Never once have I had this happen. Maybe I don't go on sketchy enough websites?

 

[bounty1097]

Part of the issue is that some users tend to click "OK" to popups without reading them, which is what makes them subscribed to spam calendars in the first place.

Apple could make this less likely simply by respecting their own Human Interface Guidelines.

This is what the modal looks like.

"Cancel" button should be on the left, and "OK" button should be a verb like "Subscribe".

From Apple's HIG:

• "Cancel buttons should always be on the left."
• "To the extent possible, use verbs and verb phrases that relate directly to the alert title and message—for example, View All, Reply, or Ignore. Use OK for simple acceptance."

You nailed it! Hope Apple would make those changes

 

[Maconplasma]

I've never had this happen. Been using iCloud since inception. Probably has a lot to do with sketchy websites people visit for their personal entertainment and clicking on stuff that leads them to this.

 

[ian87w]

How does this happen? I mean seriously, how can one spam another person's calendar?

 

[neuropsychguy]

I’ve had this issue in the past. It’s not only tied to sketchy websites. I received spam calendar notices after email address leaks from various sites. There are ways to remove the calendar notices without notifying the sender but it was a bit of a headache a few years ago because my calendar would be full of unending daily spam calendar notices. Thankfully, no problems since after making the recommended iCloud setting changes.

 

[pi=e=3]

How does this happen? I mean seriously, how can one spam another person's calendar?

By sending you event invitations via email. They will pop up in your calendar.

 

[ian87w]

The video shows how simple it is to just unsubscribe the calendar (how did one even subscribe to a spam calendar in the first place?).

What else can Apple do?

 

[ian87w]

By sending you event invitations via email. They will pop up in your calendar.

Sure, got that a lot for work. Usually an ics file.
Still, who would be subscribing willingly to a random invite form a random email? I'm genuinely curious. I've been using cloud-based calendaring (eg. Google calendar), and sharing events etc with many peers for a long time, and I have yet to encounter these "spam" events. It's one thing for email since you just get the spam email directly sent to your inbox. But seems like a "spam" calendar requires active participation from the user, which baffles me. Even my non-tech-literate parents know to ignore/delete anything they don't recognise (eg. sms, we get a ton of spam SMS in my country, many form the carriers themselves).

 

[pi=e=3]

The video shows how simple it is to just unsubscribe the calendar (how did one even subscribe to a spam calendar in the first place?).

What else can Apple do?

Creating an option to auto-reject invitations from people who aren't known contacts would be nice.

Sure, got that a lot for work. Usually an ics file.
Still, who would be subscribing willingly to a random invite form a random email? I'm genuinely curious. I've been using cloud-based calendaring (eg. Google calendar), and sharing events etc with many peers for a long time, and I have yet to encounter these "spam" events. It's one thing for email since you just get the spam email directly sent to your inbox. But seems like a "spam" calendar requires active participation from the user, which baffles me. Even my non-tech-literate parents know to ignore/delete anything they don't recognise (eg. sms, we get a ton of spam SMS in my country, many form the carriers themselves).

You don't need to subscribe to them willingly at all. I was barraged with random Russian spam events on my gmail, I had no way of dealing with it shy of completely blocking all events. I wasn't opening or looking at them, they were just popping up in my calendar.

 

[ian87w]

Creating an option to auto-reject invitations from people who aren't known contacts would be nice.

But what if it's a genuine invite (eg. from a new client that you haven't added)?

 

[scheinderrob]

with the billions of stolen email addresses, people can just spam invites to those lists all day long and get hits.

 

[sw1tcher]

users are targeted through web pop-ups on potentially malicious or adult websites

It happened to me as well. I visited an anime streaming site and one of the ads in that site installed spam calendar. I tried to remove it, but it wasn't obvious. google search saved me

"anime"

Hentai?

No one's judging.

j/k

 

[ian87w]

You don't need to subscribe to them willingly at all. I was barraged with random Russian spam events on my gmail, I had no way of dealing with it shy of completely blocking all events. I wasn't opening or looking at them, they were just popping up in my calendar.

Oh, so you mean it's like Gmail detecting an event in Gmail and automatically add it to your calendar? I guess that would be a problem, but you can turn that feature off. Maybe iCloud doesn't have this switch?