Building a Digital Defense against Calendar Fraud

The FBI’s Portland, Oregon office has published an advisory discussing the threat of calendar fraud and providing some steps for combating it. Scammers have started sending online users calendar invites, a form of phishing. In many cases, the calendar’s default settings allow the invitation to simply appear on your account. The fraudster could be offering you a prize or an invitation to some special event. Just click on the link and you can register, or click, put in your credit card number, and you are on your way to winning the jackpot. In cases when the recipient actually acts on the email, the sender is able to access your bank account, at the very least. At most, the sender has loaded malware onto your device and now has access to all of your passwords, personal info, and more. How to protect yourself? The FBI provides a series of tips; it also encourages victims to report incidents to its Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov or call their local FBI office. The FBI has been successful at helping victims recover money lost in online scams, but only when it has been made aware of the incident. Read the advisory at the FBI.