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iCloud Calendar Spam Is Now a Thing, Here's How to Defeat It

iCloud Calendar Spam Is Now a Thing, Here's How to Defeat It

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 29 November 2016 18:24 IST

Photo Credit: astralbodi.es/Aaron Douglas

Highlights

On iOS and macOS, spam calendar invites are pushed from emails
Users can stop this spam through iCloud.com
The spam invites notify the sender automatically

Many iCloud account holders have been reporting an influx of spam calendar invitations lately. This is caused because macOS and iOS operating systems automatically scan the Inbox for calendar invites. These are then shown to users in the form of calendar invite prompts, and the email is deleted to avoid congestion. While it's a great feature for remembering events and reducing clutter in email, the increasing number of spam invites from brands and companies could get annoying.

Additionally, there is no way to ignore these invites, and you have to choose one of the three options - Accept, Maybe, Decline - in order to get rid of the push notification. This means the spammer receives a reply no matter what.

Luckily, there is a way to stop these invites altogether, reports the New York Times. Head to iCloud.com in Safari or any other Web browser. Log in using the credentials that you use on your iPhone. Click on Calendar > Settings icon > Preferences > Advanced > Invitations. Under Invitations tab set the option for 'Receive event notifications as' to 'Email to' rather than an 'In-app notification'.

This should stop all the calendar invite spam from hitting your notifications screen. There's also a separate workaround method to delete invites without sending the response to the spammer using macOS. Create a new iCloud calendar (not "On My Mac"), and then move the spam event to the new iCloud calendar. After moving it, delete the newly created iCloud calendar. Upon deleting, the Calendar will prompt you to select between "Delete and Don't Notify" and "Delete and Notify". Users have to then select "Delete and Don't Notify" to ensure that the spammer does not get any notification.

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