Dosh dilemma – Dave’s warning: watch out for the iPhone calendar app scam

Dave got in touch with a warning for others after he recently encountered a scam.

Out of the blue, he received an invitation to a careers fair on his iPhone calendar. It seemed odd. Dave’s happy in his job, and the last thing he’d want to attend is a careers fair.

So he tried to delete the invite. But no matter how many times he tried, it kept coming back.

The invitation also included a link to “book your place at the fair”, with a warning to hurry because places were “limited and filling up fast”.

By this point, Dave was highly suspicious. There was no way he was going to click the link.

It’s a good job he didn’t.

The ‘careers fair’ invite was actually a phishing scam.

Apple warns that unwanted calendar invitations and subscriptions can be signs of phishing attempts.

And on an iPhone, these spam invites don’t need an app to be installed. They can appear directly in your calendar without going through the App Store, a sneaky way to sidestep Apple’s usual security checks.

Once the invite lands in your calendar, scammers hope you’ll click the link. From there they may try to steal your banking details, sell you something overpriced, or persuade you to install software that gives them access to your accounts.

Dave was lucky, he trusted his instincts. But how can you spot an iPhone calendar scam?

The warning signs

The biggest red flag is receiving an unexpected calendar invite, especially if it includes links or phone numbers urging you to take action.

How to get rid of scam calendar invites

If your iPhone is running iOS 14.6 or later:

• open the calendar app
• tap the event you want to remove
• tap unsubscribe from this calendar at the bottom of the screen
• tap unsubscribe to confirm

If your iPhone is using an earlier version of iOS:

• open the calendar app
• tap calendars at the bottom of the screen
• tap the more info button next to any calendar you don’t recognise
• scroll down and tap delete calendar

If that doesn’t work, try this:

• open Settings
• tap calendar > accounts
• (on iOS 13, tap passwords & accounts > accounts)
• tap subscribed calendars
• look for any calendars you don’t recognise
• tap them and select delete account

If a calendar invite looks suspicious, the safest move is simple - don’t click the link.