Calendar phishing scam targets users with fake calendar appointment invitations

• Fake calendar appointments scam accounts for 7% of all digital appointment invitations.
• Unlike other phishing email campaign which delivers unwanted messages or malicious attachments, this calendar phishing scam delivers fake calendar appointment invitations.

GMX has warned users of a new phishing spam campaign ‘Calendar scam’ that delivers fake calendar appointment invitations via email. Unlike other phishing email campaign that delivers unwanted messages or malicious attachments, this calendar scam delivers calendar appointment invitations with fake dates.

“Currently, calendar spam accounts for seven percent of all digital appointment invitations - and this figure is rising. If, for example, you receive special ‘discounts,’ or the sender is unknown, then users should be extremely skeptical,” Jan Oetjen, Managing Director of GMX said.

Three ways of attack

GMX noted that this fake calendar appointment scam attacks in three possible ways listed below.

• The first time when the calendar appointment invitation is sent to users via email.
• The second time when it marks as an entry in the calendar.
• The third time when the calendar appointment carries a reminder.

Rejecting the spam invite might turn out bad

GMX stated that rejecting the appointment invitation may turn out bad. By rejecting the invitation, the calendar disappears, however, the scammer who sent the invite will be notified that the spam calendar appointment invitation has reached the recipient and email address associated with the calendar is actually being used. This increases the probability that spammers will now frequently send spam emails to the email address.

An easy way to get rid of the calendar spam

One of the ways users can get rid of the calendar spam is by creating a new calendar and moving the calendar spam entry to the newly created calendar and then deleting the created calendar including the fake date appointment.