Scammers have found a new disguise: the party invite you don't remember RSVPing to.
Fraudsters are sending phishing emails formatted to look like invitations from Evite or Paperless Post, two of the most common tools people use to organize real gatherings. The goal is standard phishing: get someone to click through and hand over personal data. The emails work because invitations carry a built-in social pressure to open and respond, making them a more effective hook than the average fake invoice or delivery notice. Oddly, some recipients who clock the scam are now using the sender's name as a prompt to reach out to whoever the invite claimed to be from, repurposing an attempted data grab into an excuse to reconnect with an old friend or ex.
It's a variation on a familiar phishing playbook. Attackers increasingly borrow the format of routine, low-suspicion email, like shipping notices, invoices, and meeting invites, because those categories train people to click without much scrutiny. Party invites push that logic into a more personal register, using life outside work rather than the office inbox to lower a reader's guard, and the reconnect angle shows a scam accidentally working as a social nudge once the deception fails.
The trick loses its power the moment invites stop being opened reflexively. Until then, that mysterious evite from a name you haven't heard from in years is worth a second look, for the phishing risk if nothing else.