Why am I suddenly receiving spam calendar invitations/appointments in Outlook (Microsoft 365 Family).

Over the course of two days last week, Thursday & Friday, I activated the "Help" to Outlook "support" in the menu at the top of my Outlook application. I jumped through hoops to activate OneNote and OneDrive, (I don't use either of those services online) took screenshots of the issue, uploaded those to OneNote and OneDrive, shared the link. The "support" person or people I was communicating with, couldn't access the link even after 4 different attempts even though MSFT's own messaging stated that anyone I share that link with will be able to view the info I shared. Finally, Microsoft "Support" said it's not an Outlook app issue because the problem also exists on Outlook.com, and quickly washed their hands of me but they did provide a link so that I could start the whole process all over again.

This isn't my first go around with MSFT support. The last time I mustered up the energy to address this issue with them, the Outlook.com "support" people said it wasn't a "technical issue" with Outlook.com, so therefore, there was nothing to support. No features were inoperable, and there was nothing broken, in THEIR perspective.

I happen to work for a significant Microsoft reseller. I can't threaten to not sell their products as that would cost me my job, however, the appalling demonstration of what @microsoft calls "support" of my paid subscription, not to mention the amount of other people this affects, severely impacts my interest and ability to recommend Microsoft to anyone in situations where it can't affect my employment stability. This is deplorable, Microsoft. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I suspect you will lose many Cloud subscriptions over this issue, including mine.

Update since my previous comment and seeing so many others with the same issue.

So since i blocked mail from adding to my Calendar, (Via iPhone, - settings - mail - accounts - outlook - deselect calendar.) It now shows me when viewing on (Laptop, webpage) the scam emails in my junk box and says that i need to 'RSVP' to their event. (This is how i am pinpointing which emails they are now coming from since blocking them from showing in calendar) But i haven't had any for at least two days now! (Usually 2 a day, maybe its because its over the weekend?) My usual port of call for scam emails is to block the sender, but recently i have been selecting all the scam emails including the ones with an event and pressing "report"

Hopefully something can be done about this. Iv had this email for 15 odd years, will be very annoying if i have to transfer everything to my back up / spare email, (Google - Although this email never receives scam emails which is maybe an advantage to switch!)

Why does Spam now appear as from a trusted sender?

Why does the email address not appear in my trus†ed list?

How is that they can place meeting invites in my calendar for 2 weeks non-stop

How is that I can only decline the invite which will then create more invites

I am very sorry that everyone out there is still suffering from the attacks of spam.

I fought Spam at the corporate level for over 20 years. It equipment, licensing, training and the right people to administer the spam prevention applications are all costly.

But, the same effort it takes to protect an office building of 500 or even 25 users is the same effort to protect their email server farms. Email can be filtered when it comes into the Microsoft (MS) email server farms. Most of the emails I receive are not from valid domains. MS is not even doing reverse lookups to ensure the sending email accounts are real.

The big question here is why? Why does MS allow its customers to be preyed upon, data stolen, financial attacks, and the whole host of scams and evil **** spammers pull. They are all bad actors. MS is profiting off of selling them your information, the same as Google, Facebook (meta), and all the other so-called "FREE" social platforms. The theft of your data has made people like Mark Zuckerman BILLIONS of dollars. If Facebook is free, where did all the cash come from?

Why don't your apps on your phone close automatically? Because while they run in the background they monitor and track you. Steal your data, pictures, videos, and more. Heck, I have seen apps for coupons that stole my wife's data allotment by the Gigs.

If Microsoft will not stop the spam problem I guarantee that they are profiting from it somehow.

As an MCSE, dual Master's Degrees, Collegiate professor, and Dean in IT Security with over 25 years of experience:

   " DO NOT TRUST MICROSOFT " They can end spam today. Ask yourself why they will not when every one of us out here would gladly pay a subscription fee if necessary to end spam. Why would they turn down money?

Microsoft is aware and didn’t even trying. I ported most of my main correspondence to Gmail, since their rules is more robust and catch those domains and keywords by totally deleting them.

I’m not going to renew Microsoft 365 end of this year. It is a shame. If its not for my xbox, I will totally delete my outlook.com account!