Calendar invites can carry scams too

How it works

Calendar invitations are emails with extra information inside. Depending on your settings, a new invitation may be added to your calendar as tentative before you have done anything. That puts the scammer’s message, and its link, in a place people tend to trust.

Scam invites usually offer something: a payment waiting, an account warning, a document to review, a prize. Some copy a meeting invite from a real video calling service, with a link that leads to a fake sign-in page.

Invitations also send reminders. A scam you ignored as an email can pop up again as a notification at the time of the “meeting.”

What to do

• Do not click links in invitations from people you do not know.
• Do not accept or decline a suspicious invite. Responding confirms your address is active. Delete it instead, and report it as junk or phishing if you can.
• Check meeting links before joining. A real meeting link goes to the meeting service’s own domain.
• Report repeat invites to your IT provider. Settings can stop invitations from outside senders being added to calendars automatically.