--- title: "Don’t Be Snagged by This Google Calendar Phishing Scam - Get a Free Network Security Consultation in South Florida" description: "Gmail is one of the most popular email programs in the world, but a phishing attack using google calendar puts users at risk. Today, we explain it." url: "https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/don-t-be-snagged-by-this-google-calendar-phishing-scam" date: "2026-06-21T00:09:33+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- ## Get a Free Network Security Consultation in South Florida Get a free network security consultation today from L7 Solutions. We are your partner for managed services & IT support in South Florida and beyond. Call today. [ Categories ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/categories "Categories") [ Tags ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/tags "Tags") [ Categories: All Categories ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0); "Categories") Search...Suggested keywords [ x ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) # Don’t Be Snagged by This Google Calendar Phishing Scam [LSeven Solutions Blog](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/categories/blog) [Security](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/categories/security) [LSeven Solutions Admin](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/blogger/l7-admin) Friday, 18 October 2019 [ 1 Comment ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/don-t-be-snagged-by-this-google-calendar-phishing-scam#comments) [ ![Don’t Be Snagged by This Google Calendar Phishing Scam](//www.l7solutions.com/images/easyblog_shared/October_2019/10-18-19/b2ap3_large_scam_284587968_400.jpg) ](//www.l7solutions.com/images/easyblog_shared/October_2019/10-18-19/scam_284587968_400.jpg "Don’t Be Snagged by This Google Calendar Phishing Scam") Gmail and the applications associated with it seem to have some level of inherent trust among users. We just don’t anticipate threats to come in via something from Google. However, it does happen, as a recent spat of phishing has shown using Gmail and Google Calendar. What’s worse, this particular scam has been around for some time. We’ll review how the scam works, and what can be done to protect your business from its effects. ## How This Scam Works Let’s outline the scenario: a user logs into their Google account and finds an invite for a Google Calendar event. The invite is for a crucial company-wide meeting - apparently to discuss a new vision for the company, changes to policies moving forward, that kind of thing - that is scheduled to take place at the end of the day. A link is included for the complete agenda to the meeting. Clicking the link brings the user to an authentication page, where the user inputs their credentials. Uh oh… the user was caught up in the scam. This scam is unnervingly simple to enact. An invite is sent to a user for a calendar event, which is automatically added, and the user notified. In that notification, a scammer includes fraudulent links to a facsimile Google login page - which is actually just a means for a hacker to steal the user’s credentials. Sometimes, this link will just allow malware to install itself on the user’s systems. Some attackers have fooled personal users by claiming that they won a cash prize - informing them through the fraudulent calendar entry. ## How This Was Discovered This scam was actually first reported back in 2017 by researchers at an IT security firm, but no apparent steps to resolve it were taken by Google. One of the researchers noticed that an unfamiliar calendar event had been added to their Calendar when another user at the firm shared an upcoming flight itinerary through Gmail. However, the event was automatically added to the researcher’s calendar. Digging deeper into the implications this accident brought up, the firm realized that an email doesn’t need to be sent to add an event to someone’s calendar. Then came the thought: sure, we all know to look for phishing in our emails, but would we ever question a Calendar entry? As the firm’s tests indicated: apparently not. ## How to Help Stop This Scam While Google is still working on a fix - after finally acknowledging the issue, that is - there are a few things that your users can do to help prevent this scheme from taking advantage of your business. They need to disable any events from Gmail being added to the Calendar automatically, and they also need to disable any event invitations from being automatically added as well. These options can be found in **Settings** in the Google Calendar application. Under **Event settings**, **deselect** the option for **Events from Gmail** to “**Automatically add events from Gmail to my calendar**.” You also need to change the **Automatically add invitations** option to “**No, only show invitations to which I have responded**.” Hopefully, enacting this will keep you from experiencing a phishing attack from an unexpected source - your agenda. Subscribe to our blog for more information about optimizing your IT (and its security), and for more assistance, give COMPANYNAME a call at PHONENUMBER. [ ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) [ ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) [ ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) Tags: [Security](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/tags/security) [Email](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/tags/email) [Phishing](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/tags/phishing) [ Cybersecurity Insurance Gaining Steam ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/cybersecurity-insurance-gaining-steam) [ How to Keep Your Employees from Burning Out ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/how-to-keep-your-employees-from-burning-out) About the author [ ![LSeven Solutions Admin](https://www.l7solutions.com/images/easyblog_avatar/805_844_author.png) ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/blogger/l7-admin) [LSeven Solutions Admin](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/blogger/l7-admin) [ ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0); "Subscribe to updates from author") [ ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) [ ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/blogger/l7-admin) Welcome to LSeven's Blog! Here we will share useful tips and tricks for Computers and Information on Our IT Services! Author's recent posts [More posts from author](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/blogger/l7-admin) [ Tuesday, 30 June 2026 Stop Managing Metal, Start Managing People: A Guide to Hybrid IT ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/stop-managing-metal-start-managing-people-a-guide-to-hybrid-it) [ Saturday, 27 June 2026 Free AI is Not Free: Why Public Tools Are a Security Risk ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/free-ai-is-not-free-why-public-tools-are-a-security-risk) [ Thursday, 25 June 2026 Phishing is Getting Sophisticated: The New Threats Businesses Face ](https://www.l7solutions.com/blog/phishing-is-getting-sophisticated-the-new-threats-businesses-face) Comments 1 [ ![Deborah Dickson](https://www.l7solutions.com/media/com_easyblog/images/avatars/author.png) ](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) [Deborah Dickson](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0); "Deborah Dickson") on Tuesday, 22 October 2019 13:35 This is an knowledgeable post. I like it so much and impressed your work. I want more similar topics about this post for increase our knowledge. Thanks. 0 [Cancel](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) [Reply](https://www.l7solutions.com/javascript:void(0);) This is an knowledgeable post. I like it so much and impressed [url=https://awriter.org/edubirdie-com-review/]https://awriter.org/edubirdie-com-review/[/url] your work. I want more similar topics about this post for increase our knowledge. Thanks. 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