Calendar Scams and Craig’s List Scam

First it was emails. Then it was text messages. Now the latest scams involve calendar invites and Craig’s List. Scammers are taking advantage of default calendar settings to plant phony events laced with phishing links on targets’ schedules.  You use Outlook, Google Calendar, or a similar program to keep track of your schedule. One day, you check   and find a strange event that you don’t remember accepting. It seems to be promoting a special discount or offer. The event body tells you to click a link to take a survey, find a nearby location, or something similar. Scammers are taking advantage of default calendar settings that automatically add any event to a user’s calendar, whether they have accepted it or not.  Scammers add a phishing link and a short description to entice targets to click. The link might point to a form that requests personal information or downloads malware to your device.

Never click on links or download attachments from unknown events. Just like emails, out-of-the blue calendar invites are often attempts to install malware on your computer and/or steal your personal information.

Change your settings: Check your calendar settings and make sure to turn off any options that say “automatically add invitations” or something similar. You want your calendar set to give you the option of accepting or rejecting every invitation.

Another scam recently happened to a woman from Elizabethton, TN. She arrived in Pigeon Forge to find people already in the cabin she thought she had rented. The woman had found a listing for a two-story cabin in Pigeon Forge on Craigslist. After calling about  the cabin, she was sent a rental agreement from a company called Steamboat Springs Mountain and Ski Rentals. She filled out the agreement and returned it with a wire transfer for $640 to cover rental and cleaning fees. She was supposed to meet a company representative outside of the cabin upon arrival. The woman got there and found the cabin occupied. The tenants who were there spoke with her and she found out that the cabin was rented through a different company, leaving her without a place to stay and without her $640.00.