Happy Friday! Here’s what’s on deck this week: a quick tip you can use today, the latest cybersecurity news worth knowing, and a reminder on how to make the most of your P3C support — plus a bonus this week: our new AI and Automation Minute.
Thank you for reading. Stay safe out there.
– Brad Otto
Tip of the week
Watch Out for “Ghost” Calendar Invites
Here’s a sneaky one: scammers know that Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail often auto-add calendar invites to your calendar the moment a message with an .ics attachment lands in your inbox — even if you never open the email, let alone click “accept.” That means a fake event like “Action Required: Payment Failed for Your 250GB Cloud Storage” can show up directly on your calendar, looking just as legitimate as a real meeting. The goal is to get you to panic, tap the invite, and call a phone number or click a link “to resolve” a charge that never actually happened. If you spot an event on your calendar that you don’t remember creating or accepting, don’t call any number or click any link inside it — just delete it, and if you’re worried it might be real, contact the company directly through their official website or app. You can also turn off “automatically add invitations” in your calendar app’s settings so invites wait for your review before they ever show up.
Example of a scam calendar invite — notice the unfamiliar sender address under Invitees.
Cybersecurity news
Don’t Paste That “Verification Code” — The ClickFix Scam Making the Rounds
One of our clients had a close call recently with an attack technique called ClickFix. An employee landed on a page with what looked like a routine CAPTCHA — “click here to confirm you’re human” — but instead of a simple click, it walked him through copying a command and pasting it into the Windows Run dialog. That single paste kicked off a chain reaction: PowerShell launched, reached out to a remote server, and tried to download malware. The whole thing played out in under three minutes, but sharp instincts (the employee noticed a strange network drive and asked “should we be worried?”) and layered endpoint protection caught it before it became a real breach. The lesson: legitimate verification steps never ask you to paste anything into a Windows dialog box. If a site asks you to do that, close the tab.
Cybersecurity news
The Fake ChatGPT Site That Was Hosted on the Real ChatGPT Domain
Another close call, another ClickFix variant — this time hiding in plain sight. A client searched “ChatGPT” on Google, clicked a hijacked ad, and landed on a page where the address bar genuinely said chatgpt.com. It was a malicious mini-app built on OpenAI’s own platform, complete with a fake chat history, that popped up a banner claiming high traffic and pointing to a “backup domain.” (There’s no such thing — we’ve seen the same trick used against Claude users too.) From there, a fake “verify you’re human” prompt walked him through pasting a command into the Windows Run dialog, silently installing malware. No passwords were ever typed, but the machine still had to be treated as compromised and rebuilt. The takeaway: if a “backup domain” ever shows up for a service that’s never needed one, stop — and if you’re ever asked to open the Run dialog to “verify” something, that’s the attack, not the fix.
Working with P3C
Verify You’re Really Talking to P3C
Getting a call from someone who says they’re from P3C? Take ten seconds to confirm it’s really us before sharing anything. Head to our technician verification page, enter your name and phone number, and you’ll get a one-time code. Ask the technician on the call to read that same code back to you — if it matches, you’re genuinely talking to our team. If the code doesn’t match, or if anyone ever asks you to read the code to them, hang up and call us directly at 262.423.6267 (WI) or 228.344.6081 (MS/AL). A real P3C technician will never ask you to read this code to them.
The AI and Automation Minute
Your First Step Into AI Doesn’t Have to Be Scary
If you haven’t checked out our AI-focused site yet, head over to ai.p3ctech.com. While you’re there, grab a copy of our book, Beyond the Prompt: The Business Owner’s Guide to Understanding AI — and when you sign up to download it, you’ll also get a free AI Acceptable Use Policy, ready to customize for your business. An AI AUP is the first real step toward implementing AI safely and successfully at work. Want to hear more? Keep an eye out for an invite to P3C’s first AI and Automation Show & Tell event, where we’ll share what’s actually worked (and what hasn’t) in our own AI and automation journey so far.
You’re receiving this because you’re a valued P3C client or partner.