Have you been seeing a lot of spam in your iCal recently? If yes, then don’t worry, you’re not alone. Users from the world over have been complaining about iCal spam reminders on the rise.
Some iCloud users have been noticing a sudden influx of spam invitations into their iCloud accounts. Oftentimes, these iCal spam messages are from some random retailers.
As can bee seen, the problem has also infiltrated other apps that rely on iCloud sharing. Most noticeable victim of the iCal spam is the Photos app.
The problem is getting compounded because iCloud sharing syncs data across multiple devices. That means that you’re troubled by these spam messages multiple times, over all the devices running the affected Apple ID.
The worst of all iCal spam messages doing the round are the ones that send out invitations as “recurring events”. You know what that means. It means you will have to face the spam each day, every day, for the rest of your life! Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles in a thundering typhoon!!@#%$&!!
Well, what’s the point of our existence if not providing you with solutions!? So here’s how you deal with the iCal spam messages.
First of all, we need to understand why this is happening. The culprits behind this hoax are exploiting a unique feature available in iOS and macOS.
Apple’s software automatically reads through your emails for finding information that it can use to create an “event” in your iCal. It could be as simple as a line from your friend that goes: “Are we still meeting for dinner tomorrow?” iOS and macOS will pick it up and let you create an event with a single click.
It’s a very useful tool. But unfortunately, it’s now being exploited by a bunch of wannabe hackers. As MacWorld explains:
“Apple automatically examines ICS attachments [calander events] sent via email to your iCloud email account, whether or not it’s from a known recipient. By default, an iCalendar invitation gets extracted and shown to you in all your linked calendars in iOS and macOS.”
This is done through a technique called “phishing.” The sender of the event has no idea if your email is valid/working or not, and that’s exactly what they want to find out. When you respond to the event, they get to know that your email id is working. And now they have a valid email to spam.
If you click the invite, you can respond with Accept, Decline, or Maybe. However, no matter what you click, that response is sent back to the inviter, which will surely trigger more spam, because they know your account received the request and you interacted with it.
Now, there are a couple of ways to deal with this problem. In iOS, you can simply swipe left/right (depending on you setting) to delete the event, without generating a response. It’s not so simple on macOS. Here’s what you gotta do —
- Go to iCloud.com and log in with your Apple ID. (Only works on a system. Mobile browsers don’t support iCloud.com)
- Click on “Calander”.
- Click on the small gear icon that’s in the bottom left corner.
- From the pop-up menu, select “Preferences”.
- Navigate to the “Advanced” tab.
- Click on “Save”, and log off from your iCloud account.
- Log off from all the devices running your Apple ID and sign back in again for the changes to take effect.
What this does is that instead of showing you the invitation directly on iCal, such messages will be seen only in your email inbox. And in 9 out of 10 cases, Apple will be able to mark these emails as “Spam,” blocking them from your inbox altogether. So chances are you’ll never have to deal with any of this.
This, of course, inhibits Apple’s ability to create automatic events from your email, but that’s a small price to pay when compared to the headache you might otherwise face. Hope this fixes your iCal spam problem. Do right to us if you’re still having issues. Or if you’ve a better solution!