A recent increase in phishing scams utilising calendar invitations has been noted by consumer champion Which?. These invitations are designed to trick recipients into responding, and simply interacting with them can confirm to scammers that an email account is active.
Which? experts advise against tapping 'Accept', 'Maybe', or 'Decline' on these invitations, as any of these actions sends an automatic response to the sender. This could lead to more spam or phishing attempts.
For iPhone users with an Outlook email address, a workaround is available. First, disable the Calendars option for your Outlook account in iPhone settings. Then, log into your Outlook mail account via outlook.live.com, locate and report the spam email, and permanently delete it from the Deleted Items folder. Finally, re-enable the Calendars option in your iPhone settings; the spam invitation should then be removed.