Google calendar and new type of spam!

When it comes to innovation we all look at companies like Google, Yahoo and various new startups, which change the course of the internet with their exuberance and hunger of changing the world. However there is another aspect of internet and that is the bad side of it and I’m really impressed with the kind of innovative ideas they come up with.

Recently, I started getting various reminder through Google calendar which invited me in some kind of an event and when I saw them and read the content, the only word which came out of my mouth was SPAM!

I was astonished to see that how the spammers have found a great (and probably a security hole) way to reach to the target’s inbox. Because the reminder comes directly from Google Calendar the chances of it hitting the inbox are much higher than conventional way of sending the spam.

The message is an invitation to an event and asks you if you want to attend it or not, the moment you’ll select Yes or No, the spammer will get the notification that you have got a real email address and that you can be targeted next time too.

The concern is that even though the calendar is not public (was never made public too), I’m getting these kind of spam notifications and that too directly in my Google Calendar. It even creates the doubt in my mind that should I use Google Calendar or not ? I think I’ll settle with iCal application which can do almost all the tasks without any problems.

Today’s tip for you is that, in case you get these kind of requests then don’t respond to them. Simply ignore or delete them. Have you come across this new kind of spam ?