Google Calendar Phishing

kltaylor

https://www.wired.com/story/phishing-links-google-calendar-invites/

Has anyone recently received calendar invites that you didn't add to your calendar?

Did you just receive a calendar notification stating that you won an item or some money?

I did not too long ago, please read the article from Wired and make adjustments to your Google calendar.  Please remember if the offer seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Burratha

These have just begun to appear in my calendar, too. Google is usually pretty decent at SPAM filtering - just hope they catch up with this kind of unwanted crud.

VioletChepil

Thanks for reporting @kltaylor. I get so much phishing attempts and they are increasingly getting more clever. I've not experienced this one yet! 

Grouty

Haven't seen this yet but thanks for the warning. I'll be on the lookout. 

pwmeek

@kltaylor Thanks for this. I've made the changes in my Google Calendar settings suggested in the Wired article.

kltaylor

pwmeek said:

@kltaylor Thanks for this. I've made the changes in my Google Calendar settings suggested in the Wired article.

It's the new form of phishing, since without that modification to the settings literally, anyone can sign you up for a calendar event with only your email name being known to them.

I had an event stating that I won an iPhone ... I'm an Android guy ... so there's that.

MDavide

 kltaylor said:

Has anyone recently received calendar invites that you didn't add to your calendar?

Not yet. Thank you for heads up.

kltaylor

MDavide said:

 kltaylor said:

Has anyone recently received calendar invites that you didn't add to your calendar?

Not yet. Thank you for heads up.

My pleasure, glad I could help spread the word and help keep people safe from online predators.

kltaylor

Here's an official response from Google regarding this issue.

MDavide

This morning I received my first phishing attempt promising Netflix , one year subscription for free :-)

kltaylor

MDavide said:

This morning I received my first phishing attempt promising Netflix , one year subscription for free :-)

Now that would be a nice gift.

Has anyone else received a message like this and if so what was it regarding?  What was your 'free reward' that they offered?

Stratt3000

Sheesh!  Crafty buggers   As we move forward with tech, these attacks get much more innocuous in appearance.  Great share @kltaylor
Attacks are increasingly far more methodical and targeted.. examples of what we all know as spear-phishing.  Gone are the days when black-hats would use the mass spam tactic, hoping to catch a few in the huge spam blast as it has become far more profitable to spend time on individual targets. 

kltaylor

Stratt3000 said:

Sheesh!  Crafty buggers   As we move forward with tech, these attacks get much more innocuous in appearance.  Great share @kltaylor
Attacks are increasingly far more methodical and targeted.. examples of what we all know as spear-phishing.  Gone are the days when black-hats would use the mass spam tactic, hoping to catch a few in the huge spam blast as it has become far more profitable to spend time on individual targets. 

No problem at all, just trying to keep the community aware of things as they come up!