Is that party or event invitation email a scam?

How it works

The email looks like an invitation from a familiar invitation service: a party, a fundraiser, a holiday event. The button leads to one of two things.

• A sign-in page that asks for your email address and password, or a phone number and a one-time code, "to view the invitation". The goal is your mailbox.
• A download presented as the invitation or a viewer for it. It is often legitimate remote-access software, which hands a stranger control of your computer.

Many arrive from a real contact whose mailbox was already taken over, which is why they feel expected. The same trick shows up as a shared document from a client, or a delivery update built from a real order.

Who it targets

Everyone. Businesses in finance, accounting and law have been hit hard, and teenagers get versions dressed up as a friend's party.

How to spot it

1. You weren't expecting it, or the host is vague.
2. It asks for your email password or a code. Real invitation services don't.
3. It wants you to download or install something to see an invitation.
4. When in doubt, ask the host another way.

If you already clicked

• Typed a password: see the related question on clicking a phishing link.
• Installed something: see the related fix on remote-access software.

Haven's role

Haven's link analysis runs on every page you visit, not just banking sites, so links are checked wherever they appear, including search results, webmail and calendar invites in the browser.

Haven checks whether the page in front of you really is the site it claims to be, by analyzing the page itself rather than only matching it against a list of known-bad sites.

When a download starts from a site Haven has not verified or does not trust, Haven stops it and asks you before you keep the file. If you choose Download anyway, Haven lets that source through for a short time and tries the download again; for some one-time downloads you may need to click the download link again.