Bad email fraud: How to protect yourself and your data

A new phishing scam has caught on: users should now check and treat outlook appointment calls that end up being particularly critical in their mailboxes and calendars. The Bremen Consumer Advisory Center suggests this. Background of massive attempts by data collectors to verify email collectors in this way for misuse of spam, identity theft and attacks on online accounts.

So, the calls may have come from friends or colleagues whose email accounts were hacked. So, if you find anything strange about such a call, you should pick up the phone and ask if the call is genuine, consult a consumer lawyer. Otherwise, the emails of fraudsters due to strange sender addresses or typos often attracted attention. Other languages ​​are also suspected.

How to protect yourself from Outlook fraud

Calls identified as calendar spam should not be accepted. Prohibit clicking cancel buttons. The following applies: Delete both mail and appointment on the calendar, which may be gray with no action on your part, depending on the Outlook setting.

Although mail can be deleted directly, Outlook asks when the appointment will be removed from the calendar to let the sender know. It is important to prevent this by clicking “No”. Otherwise fraudsters will have achieved their goal: they will know that this email address is being actively used.

To prevent invitations from automatically ending in Calendar, you need to change Outlook settings. Under “File / Options / Email / History” you will find the item “Meeting Requests and Meeting Requests and Automating Voting Answers”.

Here you need to select the box. If you have set up automatic response to appointment requests, you may need to disable it again to protect yourself from calendar spam.