An increased amount of phishing e-mails is currently being sent to many members of the University of Münster. 

The phishing e-mails are sent with the subject "Bitte beachten Sie, dass Sie eine ausstehende Nachricht zu Ihrem Gehaltsabrechnungskalender für Februar haben" and use the fake sender "Helpdesk - University of Münster" with a sender address of the University of Düsseldorf.  The content asks you to check supposed "messages" relating to payroll accounting and contains a link to an external website that is a deceptively genuine replica of the IT portal login page.

Do not open any links in the mentioned e-mails and do not reply to them. You no longer need to report this phishing e-mail to the CERT as appropriate measures have been initiated. Please delete it from your inbox.

If you have received such an e-mail and have opened a link from it as well as entered your credentials, please immediately contact the CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) of the University of Münster: cert@uni-muenster.de

What is phishing?
Cyber attacks often begin with a phishing e-mail designed to gain sensitive information. They often look very similar to legitimate e-mails. Here you can find information on dangers, methods of distribution and criminal backgrounds. With our Checklist: How to detect scam e-mails, you can independently check whether an e-mail is a phishing using eight points.

General handling of suspicious e-mails at the University of Münster:
If you receive a suspicious e-mails relating to the University of Münster in the future (e.g. fake e-mail addresses using uni-muenster.de or wwu.de; links to login pages that imitate the corporate design of the University of Münster; identity theft of University employees etc.), please inform the CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) of the University of Münster immediately. Please forward the suspicious e-mail as an attachment ("Forward as attachment" in Outlook or by using the key combination Ctrl + Alt + F) to spam@uni-muenster.de