Apple users were facing a lot of trouble with calendar spam, and to tackle it, the company has added a “Report Junk” option to iCloud.com. A Reddit user noticed the option over the weekend. If an iCloud user receives an unsolicited calendar invite from a sender not in their contacts, they can report it as junk by simply double-clicking on the event.
Apple adds “Report Junk” option
When a user clicks on “Report Junk,” a window opens, confirming that the invitation has been reported as junk. The system is designed to automatically delete junk invitations from the calendar. Presumably, it reports the sender’s details to Apple for further investigation, says MacRumors.
For users receiving junk advertorial iCloud Calendar invites, here’s how to fix it: Visit iCloud.com. Log in with your Apple ID; Find the invite in the web calendar UI; Press the Report Junk link. The invite will now disappear from all of your synced calendars, and the spam sender will be reported to Apple. If a user marks an invite as junk by mistake, it can undone by using the “Not Junk” option.
For now, only the web app has the “Report Junk” option available. The invite will be deleted from all synced calendars including those shown in the user’s iOS apps. Apple is expected to release a software update for iOS and MacOS that will bring the same feature in the native interfaces. With the update, users will no longer be required to open the web app to do this.
Precautions to take with iCloud calendar spam
Apple’s iCloud calendar spam has been bothering users for a long time, but a massive increase was seen around the Black Friday shopping holiday in November. It appears that the spam invites are originating mainly from Chinese email addresses that advertise questionable discounts on products such as sunglasses from Ray-Ban or Oakley.
Late last month, an Apple spokesperson apologized for the problem, saying that work was underway to block spam calendar invites.
“We are sorry that some of our users are receiving spam calendar invitations. We are actively working to address this issue by identifying and blocking suspicious senders and spam in the invites being sent,” the spokesperson said.
iCloud users are advised that on receiving a spam calendar invite, they should not click “Accept,” “Decline” or “Maybe.” Giving any kind of response will notify the spammer that the account is active and ready for more unsolicited offers, says MacRumors.
