Found an event in your Google Calendar that you didn’t create?
One word: spam.
Recently, there have been hundreds of reports and publications of Google Calendar users receiving notifications for events that they didn’t in fact create.
Most of these so-called “events” are just different forms of spam and potential phishing threats that are intended to either get your attention or obtain your information for malice.
So if this did happen to you, then understand that you’re not alone.
The preface on how these spammers managed to break through the door and exploit Google Calendar comes from Google’s own integration between Google Calendar and Gmail. If you ever had received an event in Gmail, you will find that Google Calendar will auto-add the event directly onto the calendar even if the event went into the Spam folder or if you didn’t respond to the invitation.
The spammers who do this try to exploit this and starts adding random calendar invitations to your email with clickbait titles and shady links. Some of the more common ones that are circulating amongst users are going around right now are “Your iPhone Xs Max is ready for PickUp” and “iPhone X s Free Giveaway”. The latest is an even shadier “Google Security Alert” event claiming that “your device has 5 viruses.”
Thankfully, there’s a way to put an end to all this mayhem before it gets worse and in this guide, I’ll show step-by-step on how you can fix this bug and remove spam events from ever showing up in Google Calendar again.
Let’s jump right in.
Spam Events Showing Up in Google Calendar? Here’s the Fix: 5 Steps
- First and foremost, jump onto your laptop or desktop and then visit Google Calendar on the web.
- Next, you will need to sign in with the Google account that received the spam. Simply, click the cog icon in the top-right corner and then select “Settings“
- Now, from the left-hand side of the screen select General from the menu. From there, then choose Event Settings.
- Next, to the right of this menu, click on the Automatically add invitations option and then select No, only show invitations to which I have responded from the list.
- Select “View options” from the side menu, then make sure the box next to “Show declined events” is unchecked.
- Finally, just click “Events from Gmail,” and then deselect the “Automatically add events from Gmail to my calendar” option.
You will get a warning that says “You’ll no longer see events automatically added from your email. Previously added events from Gmail will be removed.” Simply click okay.
This will, from now on, prevent any spam invitations from making their way into your calendar. You will, however, have to manually delete any spam calendar events that have already been added prior to this fix.
For your phone, do this.
To also make sure that these spam events don’t appear on your phone either, follow the steps: Open Google Calendar > Three-Line Menu (Top Left Corner) > Settings > General > toggle off Show Declined Events.
Annnd that’s about it! ✅
