Google Calendar Scam: How It Works
There is a new scam going around these days, targeting people using the Google Calendar feature on their smartphone. It is an intricate invite that makes victims believe it is real to provide personal information and other sensitive data. The scam takes advantage of a default feature that automatically adds invitations and events to calendar apps unless turned off manually. How does that work?
Watch the video below to see the Google Calendar Scam exposed:
More specifically, the scam sends a pop-up notification of an invitation to the victim's smartphone. The recipient is encouraged to click on a link. By doing that, the owner of the phone is redirected to a website featuring a simple questionnaire or other fake surveys with prize money on offer. In order to claim the prize, they are asked to enter personal information such as credit card number, name, phone number, and address.
Giving this away leads to identity theft, so beware. You can proceed by changing your settings in your app.
Google Calendar Invite: How To Avoid
How do you change your settings to your calendar? Very easy. Here is how to disable the automatic invites. Open the Google Calendar and click the Settings gear icon. Then choose "Event Settings", then click on the drop-down menu. As the last step, select: "No, only show invitations to which I've responded". You can also watch the disabling of the automatic invites tutorial in video form here. Done!
On the other hand, under View Options, verify that "Show declined events" is unchecked, so malicious events don't linger even after you decline them.
Google Calendar Invite Scam: How To Report
Warn your friends know about the Google Calendar Invite Scam by sharing it on social media using the buttons provided. You can also officially report the scammers to the Federal Trade Commission or Google using the links below:
How To Protect Yourself More
If you want to be the first to find out the most notorious scams every week, feel free to subscribe to the Scam Detector newsletter here. You'll receive periodical emails and we promise not to spam. Last but not least, use the Comments section below to expose other scammers.
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