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Apple Introduces 'Report Junk' Option To Deal With iCloud Calendar Spam Invites (9to5mac.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fixing-things dept.

Apple is rolling out a fix for the iCloud Calendar spam issue that has plagued users over the past few weeks. On iCloud.com, reports 9to5Mac, the company has added a new Report Junk feature. This lets users remove spammy invites from their calendar and reports the sender to Apple for further investigation. From the report: The feature is currently only available on Apple's iCloud.com Calendar web app but it is likely to roll out to the iOS and Mac native Calendar in a future software update. Since early November, some Apple users were seeing a deluge of calendar invites from unsolicited people (usually with Chinese names) that used the description field of calendar invites to 'advertise' junkware and various physical products.

22 comments

  1. send it to ISIS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To help with junk-fighting.

  2. Unacceptable for professional use by DogDude · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yet another reason why Apple products are unsuitable for business use. Getting calendar spam shouldn't be the user's problem. It should be the provider's problem. If for some reason we got spam into our Outlook Calendars at work, we'd switch providers in a heartbeat.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
    1. Re:Unacceptable for professional use by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      there are a dozen calendar providers you can use other than apple or icloud so it's not a big deal for professionals

    2. Re:Unacceptable for professional use by worf_mo · · Score: 2

      Unless you give the provider a whitelist of allowed addresses (or domains), they might have a hard time filtering all calendar spam. Are your company's Outlook servers run by your IT department or are you using an external provider? Outlook calendars don't seem* to be much different from iCloud calendars: anyone can send you an invitation unless the message containing the invitation gets caught by the mail spam filters.

      * I don't have much experience with Outlook - one of my customers runs Outlook servers, and they accept calendar invitations from any sender.

    3. Re:Unacceptable for professional use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      from outside your org invites are just an email with an ics file attached, so you have all your standard mail filtering already in place
      the problem here is that these are coming from other icloud users, so all that inbound spam filtering isn't being called for these invites

    4. Re:Unacceptable for professional use by DogDude · · Score: 1

      We use an external provider. Never seen a single instance of calendar spam. And, in terms of email spam, our provider does a super good job of it. We see very, very little actual spam. But, since we're paying, that's what I'd expect.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    5. Re:Unacceptable for professional use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, on iOS the Calendar is built-in and you can get spam events even if you choose an alternative Calendar.

    6. Re:Unacceptable for professional use by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      from outside your org invites are just an email with an ics file attached, so you have all your standard mail filtering already in place
      the problem here is that these are coming from other icloud users, so all that inbound spam filtering isn't being called for these invites

      You can change iCloud's calendaring setting very easily from the website so invites comes in as emails -- just like the Outlook setup you mentioning. It's just not set that way by default.

    7. Re: Unacceptable for professional use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still doesn't filter inbound from another icloud account

  3. how about just a delete by fermion · · Score: 3, Informative

    My problem is that I can only accept or reject a Calendar request. There should be an option to simply delete it without notifying the spammer.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    1. Re:how about just a delete by CaptnCrud · · Score: 1

      Or you can log into icloud and turn off the push to app option and do push to email. Even under normal circumstances in a business only network environment I wouldn't want this feature on.

  4. half the problem by ausekilis · · Score: 1

    What about junk texts?

    I get the occasional crap text, no idea how they got my number... but if its tied to email or appleID instead... then apple has more work to do.

    1. Re:half the problem by nine-times · · Score: 1

      From Apple:

      You can report iMessages that look like spam or junk from the Messages app. If you get an iMessage from someone who's not saved in your Contacts, you'll see a Report Junk link under the message. Tap the link to forward the sender's information and the message to Apple.

  5. Why wont they do this with Phone calls? by jeepville · · Score: 1

    I get many pre-recorded phone calls that if you try to call the number back its bogus aka not in service. Would be great if when you phone ring it would say mostly likely spam based on score. or after a call you could report as spam like the junk imessages I get.

    1. Re:Why wont they do this with Phone calls? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      I get many pre-recorded phone calls that if you try to call the number back its bogus aka not in service.

      Would be great if when you phone ring it would say mostly likely spam based on score. or after a call you could report as spam like the junk imessages I get.

      The reason they don't it with phone calls is obviously money.
      Allowing telemarketers to place calls allows phone companies to charge them for the calls. If the calls were not allowed to be connected based on a "spam score" the phone company could not charge for the call.

      Calendaring invites costs Apple money in resources to manage them. So reducing spammy users helps them.

    2. Re:Why wont they do this with Phone calls? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2

      They do. Or more to the point, they provide an API so that third party apps can, and in a privacy-preserving manner:

      • - Caller ID apps can fetch or generate lists of spam numbers and publish them to the phone's internal storage. It also set options for how to handle different kinds of unwanted calls (spam, fraud, etc.).
      • - When someone calls, your phone checks against that pre-stored list to categorize the caller. If it's a hit, the phone uses the settings from the previous step to either flag the caller so that you see a warning sign or block the call altogether.

      With that design, the apps don't get access to your callers so they can't spy on you. It's the best kind of trust model: the one where you don't have to trust them. I like the Hiya app but there are others.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    3. Re:Why wont they do this with Phone calls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like to keep going through the machine until I get a human, then waste as much of their time as possible asking stupid questions, til they get pissed and hang up.

  6. I bought a calendar at the dollar store by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No spam yet!

  7. It won't do anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the "report spam" feature works as well as the "report spam" or "flag post" features of every other service such as Discus or Facebook, absolutely nothing will change. The spam will continue to flow forever unabated. Despite having all the data they need, these idiot companies apply absolutely no intelligence whatsoever to ending spam.