{"id":67693,"date":"2020-06-23T11:49:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T11:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=67693"},"modified":"2020-06-23T11:49:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T11:49:21","slug":"a-weak-spot-that-allows-scammers-in-your-e-calendar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/?p=67693","title":{"rendered":"A Weak Spot that Allows Scammers In? Your E-Calendar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field field--name-field-summary field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field--item\">Email users know that an errant click can invite scammers in, but a meeting invitation? A tricky scam can install malware after users click on a seemingly legit meeting.<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field--item\">\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2013 Emails, texts and now meeting invitations \u2013 a good rule of thumb is to avoid clicking on anything.<\/p>\n<p>In the latest scam that allows criminals to install malware, ransomware and other computer-killing applications, scammers are using calendar settings to infect computers.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Better Business Bureau, this scam shows up in the from of a business invitation \u2013 generally something that the user doesn\u2019t recognize but might consider legit. In most cases, the user first becomes aware of something wrong when they see an event in their calendar that\u2019s clickable. It often suggests that the user click for some kind of discount or survey, or it offers directions to a local event. However, the reason to click can vary.<\/p>\n<p>How did the event appear in a personal calendar? A user\u2019s default calendar settings often allow other people to add an event even if the initial user didn\u2019t accept it. It becomes a \u201cphishing\u201d scam when the event that looks legit actually gives the scammer permission to download malware to the user\u2019s computer. The link might also lead to a page that asks the user for personal information.<\/p>\n<h3>Ways to avoid a calendar phishing scam<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t click links.<\/strong> While most meetings and events are likely legit, avoid anything that seems unusual or you don\u2019t remember scheduling. Similar to scam emails and texts, any click is interpreted as a user giving the scammer permission to proceed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Change calendar settings.<\/strong> Look for any setting that says something like \u201cautomatically add invitations.\u201d Most send out invitations that the user can either accept, decline or possibly click \u201cmaybe.\u201d Calendars should only accept meetings that the user specifically agreed to beforehand.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>For more information on phishing scams, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/article\/news-releases\/16758-bbb-tip-phishing-scams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Better Business Bureau\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2020 Florida Realtors\u00ae<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Email users know that an errant click can invite scammers in, but a meeting invitation? A tricky scam can install malware after users click on a seemingly legit meeting. WASHINGTON \u2013 Emails, texts and now meeting invitations \u2013 a good rule of thumb is to avoid clicking on anything. In the latest scam that allows [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[9,61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67694,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67693\/revisions\/67694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}