Scammers Exploit Google Calendar Setting to Phish Users

Google Calendar has become the latest target for scammers looking to phishing unsuspecting users. A new scam has emerged, where malicious links are being added to a user's Google Calendar, often with fake event invitations that trick victims into revealing personal and financial information.

Kaspersky Labs identified this phishing tactic in a recent report, highlighting how bad actors are taking advantage of a Google Calendar setting that allows anyone to place events on another user's calendar.

Dana Froome, a Mashable employee, recently received one of these phishing event invites. Despite being diligent about her personal calendar, she was caught off guard by the fake invitation and felt 'invasive' when she realized it wasn't from someone she knew.

Fortunately, users can take steps to protect themselves against this scam. Google recommends changing the Google Calendar privacy settings to only show invitations to which they've responded. This involves going to Event Settings > Automatically Add Invitations and selecting the option 'No, only show invitations to which I've responded.'