Tech Friday: Spammers adding events to Google’s Calendar
Posted By RichC on December 5, 2025
If you’re like me, having an online calendar that automatically keeps things up-to-date has been super convenient. I’m referring to things like airlines and hotel reservations showing up when emails arrive after purchasing tickets or making reservations. 
It has also been helpful with personal events like invitations from my daughter for the events in their life. It is very nice, ehh?
Well yes and no. Spammers have also taken advantage of this ability to add events and notifications to your calendar … even if their emails automatically are sent to a SPAM folder and you never actually see it. That means all the “automation” must stop and once again, we need to read, confirm and add an event purposefully to our calendars again.
Here was a bit of my interaction with Google’s Gemini AI about this issue (but let me know if you’ve found a better solution):
That is an excellent question, and you have identified the unfortunate trade-off.
You are 100% correct: If you uncheck “Show events from Gmail,” it will stop all automated events, including legitimate flights, hotel reservations, and concert tickets.
Here is the breakdown of why this is and what your options are.
The All-or-Nothing Problem
The “Events from Gmail” feature is part of the “Google Workspace smart features” you see in your screenshot. This single feature scans your inbox for anything that looks like an event.
- The Good: It finds your flight confirmation email and puts it on your calendar.
- The Bad: Spammers have learned to format their junk mail (like the “Geek Squad” scam) to look exactly like a real receipt or renewal. This tricks the “smart feature” into adding it to your calendar, too.
Unfortunately, Google does not give you granular control. You cannot tell it, “Only add flights but ignore receipts.” You can only turn the entire scanning feature on or off.
My Recommendation (Still Turn It Off)
Even with this trade-off, I strongly recommend you keep the “Show events from Gmail” box unchecked.
Here’s why:
- Security over Convenience: The “Geek Squad” event wasn’t just annoying; it was a phishing attempt. Stopping these security risks from ever appearing on your calendar is far more important than the small convenience of auto-added flights.
- You Regain Control: This change forces you into a much safer, more deliberate habit.
Your new process will simply be:
- You book a flight and get a confirmation email.
- You open the email and manually add the event to your calendar.
Most airline and hotel emails have an “Add to Calendar” button or .ics file attachment to make this a two-click process. It’s a very small inconvenience in exchange for a huge boost in security.
EDIT ADD: Here a better … LINK … but longer explanation of what is going on and another “better” (???) way to deal with calendar spam.
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