How to remove them and stop them from coming back
If your calendar already feels overloaded, fake meeting invites can be the final straw. Unfortunately, we’re seeing a sharp increase in phishing calendar invitations that automatically appear on users’ calendars, refuse to delete, or re-appear after being removed.
These aren’t harmless annoyances. They’re designed to create urgency, distract you during a busy day, and push you into taking a risky action.
What fake calendar invites look like
Most calendar-based phishing follows a familiar pattern:
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🚨 Subject lines that trigger panic
Examples include “Impending payment,” “Invoice overdue,” “Account suspension,” or “Urgent meeting required.”
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📞 A call to action
Some invites tell you to call a phone number, while others ask you to join a meeting.
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💸 A financial endgame
The goal is almost always money or access. Attackers may:
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Pose as tech support and ask you to install remote access software
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Sell an overpriced or fake service
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Ask directly for banking or payment details
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These invites often originate from email attachments, malicious links, or messaging apps, then get synced automatically to your calendar.
Why they’re hard to get rid of
Calendars sync across devices. That means deleting an event on your laptop doesn’t always remove it everywhere else.
In many cases, the real problem isn’t the individual event. Instead it’s an unwanted calendar subscription or a setting that automatically adds invites, even from spam.
If the source calendar isn’t removed everywhere, the event simply comes back.
How to safely remove fake calendar events
General rules (do this no matter what platform you use)
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Do not click links, call numbers, or open attachments
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Delete the event without responding, if that option exists
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Report the invite as spam or phishing
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Check all devices connected to the same account
Platform-specific cleanup steps
Outlook Calendar
If you use Outlook with Microsoft:
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Delete the event without sending a response
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Right-click the invite and report it as junk or phishing
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Disable the setting that automatically adds events from email
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If there’s a billing concern, go directly to the company’s official website and never use contact details in the invite
Gmail / Google Calendar
For users on Google services:
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Open Google Calendar
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Go to Settings → Event settings
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Change Add invitations to my calendar to:
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Only if the sender is known or
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When I respond to the invitation email
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Disable events automatically created by Gmail if enabled
This prevents spam invites from showing up without your approval.
macOS Calendar
On Macs from Apple:
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Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security
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Select Calendars
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Review which apps have access
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Remove or restrict any app you don’t fully trust
You can limit apps to read-only or block calendar access entirely.
iPhone and iPad
In addition to app permissions:
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Open Settings → Calendar → Accounts
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Tap Subscribed Calendars
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Delete any calendar you don’t recognize
This is a common hiding place for persistent calendar spam.
How to prevent calendar spam going forward
Once your calendar is clean, lock it down:
- ❗ Never engage with unsolicited calendar events, just delete them
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🔒 Turn off auto-adding or auto-processing of invites
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🛡️ Use next generation endpoint protection and managed DNS protection for the web
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🔐 Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all accounts
- 🚫 Remove public or anonymous access from resource calendars
Final takeaway
Fake calendar invites are effective because they exploit trust, urgency and already packed schedules. The good news is that with the right settings and by removing hidden calendar subscriptions you can stop them completely.
If your calendar keeps getting hijacked or you want help locking this down across your organization, contact us. We can help clean up existing spam and prevent the next wave before it hits.
